07/02/2026
A homesteader is fighting one of the world’s biggest proposed AI data center projects in Montana.
Kassi Solberg, a 43-year-old mother of six, moved to rural Montana for a quieter life. But months later, she learned that a 5,000-acre AI data center campus could be built near her property outside Broadview, a town of about 140 people. It would cover an area about the size of 3,800 football fields.
She was told she couldn’t stop it, but she's trying anyway.
It is being developed by Big Sky Digital Infrastructure, an arm of Quantica Infrastructure, as part of the nationwide race to build the computing power needed for artificial intelligence.
The scale is enormous.
The company has discussed a campus with 12 to 16 buildings, each about 200,000 to 300,000 square feet. It has also announced plans to generate more than 7,000 megawatts of power for the site, more than the Grand Coulee Dam, the largest power plant in the United States.
Supporters say the project could bring jobs, tax revenue, and investment to a rural community.
But Solberg and other residents worry about water use, electricity demand, transparency, and whether a project this large could permanently change the farming and ranching landscape around them.
Many AI data centers run thousands of servers around the clock. Those servers require huge amounts of electricity and, depending on the cooling system, can also require large amounts of water.
Learn more:
"You Can’t Stop This Data Center, a Mom Was Told. She Won’t Quit." The New York Times.
📸Credit: Northern Plains Resource Council (Screengrab)
