$100 billion in planned private spending will turn the Paducah Gaseous Diffusion Plant into a 1.8-gigawatt AI data center campus, with Brookfield selected to develop and operate the site.
NextEra and local utilities would support it with 2 gigawatts of gas generation and 2.6 gigawatts of battery storage, creating what DOE said would be Kentucky's largest gas-fired power plant; construction is targeted for 2031.
Brookfield said about 30% of the investment would fund construction and power infrastructure, with the rest going to servers, routers and semiconductor chips as talks continue with commercial tenants.
The Kentucky project follows DOE's March push at Portsmouth, Ohio, and a July selection of Amentum for South Carolina's Savannah River Site, part of a broader Trump administration drive to outpace China in AI.
Cleanup still runs alongside redevelopment at the 3,550-acre Paducah site, where decommissioning is projected through 2065 at about $17 billion and local environmental groups are challenging water, climate and permitting risks.
Will the massive energy demands of this new AI mega-campus secretly drive up utility bills for everyday consumers in Kentucky?
Is the desperate race for AI dominance forcing tech giants to gamble their billions on heavily contaminated federal brownfields?
Could repurposing a toxic nuclear ghost town into a $100 billion AI hub unleash hidden environmental disasters for local residents?
America’s $100 Billion AI Bet: The Paducah Data Center and the Race to Build Next-Gen Infrastructure
Overview
The Paducah data center project in Kentucky showcases a new model for AI infrastructure by leveraging robust legacy Cold War utilities to bypass grid bottlenecks and accelerate development. Privately funded, it avoids shifting costs to local ratepayers through dedicated power generation and legal protections like the Ratepayer Protection Pledge and special tariffs. Federal regulatory reforms, including streamlined environmental reviews and executive orders, further shorten timelines for such projects on government land. However, these advances come with challenges, such as increased utility rates, water usage concerns, and the need for ongoing environmental remediation, highlighting the complex balance between rapid technological growth and community impact.