Wyoming has never had a gigawatt-scale data center. On June 16, 2026, the Uinta County Board of Commissioners voted unanimously to grant Prometheus Hyperscale a conditional use permit for a 1.25-gigawatt AI campus on 506 acres of ranchland east of Evanston. The company says construction will start within six months of final permitting and that the campus will be built in phases over four to five years.
As of the most recent reporting we could find, from Cowboy State Daily on August 25, 2026, construction had not started. A court challenge to the county permits had been dismissed, and the company was still working through county meetings, including one focused on power infrastructure. This page tracks what has been documented and what has not.
What Happened
The project moved through Uinta County's land use process in about three weeks.
- May 27, 2026: The Uinta County Planning and Zoning Commission voted unanimously to recommend the zoning and conditional use permit approvals, according to Cowboy State Daily. The room was standing-room-only, though only a handful of residents spoke. A public forum the night before at Evanston's Roundhouse drew hundreds.
- June 16, 2026: The county commission approved an industrial subdivision rezone and unanimously granted the conditional use permit at a meeting in Lyman, according to the Uinta County Herald's report published by WyoFile on June 18. Prometheus announced the approval in a press release dated June 17. An earlier version of this article gave the vote date as June 17 and the planning vote as May 28; both were a day off.
- July 16, 2026: Three residents, Christy Katzl, Wilhelm Katzl and Marijke Rossi, filed a petition for administrative review in Uinta County District Court, asking that the permits be set aside. They alleged undisclosed meetings and family conflicts of interest and argued that the county had not adequately reviewed effects on the grid, water, noise and wildlife. County Commissioner Mark Anderson denied the allegations, according to Cowboy State Daily.
- August 17, 2026: Judge James Kaste dismissed the petition, finding that the petitioners had not responded to a motion to dismiss in time and had not shown sufficient personal harm, according to Cowboy State Daily's August 25 report. The county permits stand.
An earlier version of this article said data center opponents had blocked or delayed "roughly $130 billion" of projects nationwide in 2026. We could not trace that figure to a source and have removed it.
Project Scope
What the company and county records describe:
- Site: 506 acres of the Thornock family ranch, south of Interstate 80 near Exit 13 and about 12 miles east of Evanston, according to Cowboy State Daily and KPCW. The nearest existing land use is the Silver Eagle refinery. The property is leased from G&C Holdings LLC to Prometheus Wyoming I LLC, one of the county's permit conditions.
- Capacity: 1.25 GW initially, which the company says has a development path to 5 GW. KPCW noted that 1.25 GW is more electricity than all of Wyoming's homes use.
- Phasing: Five phases over roughly 48 to 60 months, according to founder Trenton Thornock at the planning hearing. He described the building footprint as roughly eight to nine football fields.
- Investment: Prometheus estimates about $16 billion of investment in Uinta County and a similar amount for a second campus it is proposing in Natrona County, near Casper, for about $32 billion in total, according to Cowboy State Daily on August 25. The company has not published a construction budget.
Earlier versions of this article cited a "$8 million to $12 million per MW" cost range for grid-served campuses. That was our own estimate, not a published figure, and it has been removed. For published per-MW and per-square-foot benchmarks, see our data center construction cost guide.
Power and Water
Power is the design choice that sets this project apart. The company describes the campus as a fully islanded microgrid that generates its own power on site with natural gas engines and turbines and is not connected to the public grid. "It does not draw from the public grid, because it's not even connected," Thornock said at the May 27 hearing, as reported by Cowboy State Daily. He also said the site would have diesel backup generators and that air permits would be applied for later. KPCW reported that Thornock eventually wants to add nuclear power.
We found no public record yet of a Wyoming DEQ air quality permit or a state Industrial Siting Council decision for the generation plant. One of the county's conditions requires compliance with the Wyoming Industrial Siting Act and all applicable state and federal environmental rules, so those state reviews are still ahead or not yet public. A resident's question at the planning hearing about how much natural gas the turbines would burn was not answered in the published coverage.
On water, the company says cooling is a closed loop using a mix of about 25% propylene glycol and 75% water, replaced about every six years, and that total campus water use will be about what 15 homes use in a year. Domestic water will come from a private on-site well, and the company says it will not draw cooling water from the Bear River, according to TownLift and KPCW.
For contractors, the off-grid design means this is two projects on one site: a utility-scale gas generation plant and a data center campus. The generation side brings engine and turbine setting, fuel gas piping, switchgear and medium-voltage distribution, much of which has to be done before the first data hall can run. Our coverage of electrical substation construction costs covers similar scope on the grid side.
Permit Conditions
The Uinta County Herald listed 15 conditions attached to the June 16 permit. The ones that matter most to contractors:
- Construction start: Construction must begin within five years, and the developer must notify the county. Qualifying milestones include 250,000 cubic yards of mass grading, pouring foundations, or erecting a building shell.
- Local hiring: Use Wyoming-based contractors, vendors and suppliers when reasonably possible. Thornock told the planning commission that contractors must favor Wyoming-licensed workers in close hiring decisions.
- Roads: Maintain county roads 180 and 181, including bridges and culverts, after a pre-construction baseline survey. The developer also offered to help repair a bridge on Lazeart Mine Road.
- Dust and noise: Follow Wyoming air quality standards for dust. After construction, noise at the project boundary must stay at or below 60 dBA, with an effort to reach 50 dBA.
- Emergency services: Reimburse the county for fire and ambulance service during construction.
- Sales tax: Uinta County is the receiving location for project goods, so sales tax on materials is collected there.
- Lighting and heat: Follow DarkSky International lighting standards and complete a computational fluid dynamics analysis of heat dispersal within 90 days of first operation.
Counts of the conditions differ by source. Prometheus said in July that its permit included 13 safeguards and conditions, and company president Trevor Neilson said in August that the county had placed about 30 conditions on the project. We use the Herald's list of 15 from the approval meeting.
Jobs and Workforce Housing
Job figures come from the company and vary by statement. At the May 27 planning hearing, Thornock said the project would create 3,800 temporary construction jobs, ramping up gradually, plus about 200 long-term operations jobs, according to Cowboy State Daily. TownLift reported on June 22 that the company projects nearly 12,000 total jobs by 2029, including about 8,000 construction positions and more than 1,500 indirect jobs. Treat both as company projections.
For scale, Uinta County's entire civilian labor force was 9,704 in August 2026, according to preliminary BLS Local Area Unemployment Statistics data, with an unemployment rate of 2.8%. Either job figure means most of the construction workforce will have to travel in.
That is already being planned. Target Hospitality has proposed a temporary workforce housing community for up to 3,400 workers on about 150 acres of county-owned land next to Bear River State Park, about eight miles from the site, according to Cowboy State Daily on July 28. The county planning commission approved a conditional use permit for the camp in July, with final consideration going to the county commission. Target estimated about a year to build the camp, with completion targeted for October 2027 if approvals hold. For wage context on traveling crews and per diem, see our data center construction wages guide.
Economic Projections
The company's June 17 release cites a University of Wyoming Center for Business and Economic Analysis projection of $3.1 billion in economic impact through 2032. The same paragraph of the release gives $184 million in state tax revenue during construction and $53 million a year once operating, though it does not clearly attribute the tax figures to the university study. In August, the company projected roughly a 70% increase in tax revenue in each county where it builds. These are developer-supplied figures.
Who Is Building It
No general contractor, architect or engineer has been publicly named. Prometheus has said it is courting large tenants: TownLift reported that Uinta County commissioners approved letters of support addressed to Meta and Microsoft executives, but no lease has been announced. The company's other announced projects include the Falls Ranch site near Casper, designed for up to 1.25 GW with Casper Carbon Capture, and a Texas project near the I-35 corridor with ENGIE and Conduit Power, according to its June release.
Contractor Opportunity
Nothing is publicly out to bid. The GC selection is the gate for most subcontract work. Scopes to position for:
- Civil and earthwork: Mass grading on 506 acres (250,000 cubic yards is one of the county's construction-start milestones), roads, the county road and bridge work in the conditions, and any gas supply line to the site.
- Power generation: Engine and turbine installation, fuel gas systems, exhaust and emissions equipment, and heat rejection.
- Electrical: Generation switchgear, medium-voltage distribution and data hall power. On most data centers this is the largest package by value. Our data center electrical systems guide covers the scope.
- Mechanical: Closed-loop liquid cooling distribution and the coolant systems the company has described.
- Temporary facilities: The workforce camp is its own construction project.
The county's Wyoming-preference condition gives in-state firms an edge. Contractors in Utah and the surrounding region will likely still be needed given the size of the workforce.
What to Watch
- State permits. Air quality permitting for the gas generation fleet and any Industrial Siting Act review. Neither had been reported as of our last check.
- Power infrastructure meeting. Cowboy State Daily reported in August that an additional county meeting on power infrastructure was still to come.
- GC and tenant announcements. Either would signal that procurement is starting.
- Mobilization. The company's six-month-from-final-permits commitment, and the county's five-year construction-start deadline.
We track this project and others in our data center permit tracker and on the national data center map. For the national spending picture, the Census Bureau put U.S. data center construction at an $84.95 billion annual rate in August 2026; see the $85 billion data center construction boom.
Sources and Methodology
Facts come from Prometheus Hyperscale's June 17, 2026 release; Cowboy State Daily (May 28, July 17, July 28 and August 25, 2026); the Uinta County Herald via WyoFile (June 18, 2026); KPCW (June 19, 2026); TownLift (June 22, 2026); and BLS Local Area Unemployment Statistics. Company job, investment and tax figures are projections and are labeled as such. Facts not publicly disclosed are listed that way rather than estimated.
FAQ
Has construction started on the Prometheus Hyperscale campus near Evanston?
Not as of Cowboy State Daily's August 25, 2026 report. The company says construction will begin within six months of final permitting, and the county permit requires construction to begin within five years.
When was the project approved?
The Uinta County Planning and Zoning Commission recommended approval on May 27, 2026, and the county commissioners unanimously granted the conditional use permit on June 16, 2026.
Where will the data center get its power?
From on-site natural gas engines and turbines in an islanded microgrid, according to the company. It will not be connected to the public grid. Diesel generators will provide backup.
How many construction workers will the project need?
The founder told the planning commission 3,800 temporary construction jobs; a later company projection reported by TownLift put construction positions at about 8,000 by 2029. Uinta County's labor force was about 9,700 in August 2026, so most workers will come from outside the county. A camp for up to 3,400 workers has been proposed.
Was the permit challenged in court?
Yes. Residents filed a petition for review on July 16, 2026, and Judge James Kaste dismissed it on August 17, 2026, leaving the county permits in place.
