Wyoming
Data Center News Roundup: Meta Plans $800M Wyoming Facility, Google Misses Emissions Targets
With data center news moving faster than ever, we want to make it easy for industry professionals to cut through the noise and find the most important stories of the week.
The Data Center Knowledge News Roundup brings you the latest news and developments across the data center industry – from investments and mergers to security threats and industry trends.
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Hyperscale Announcements
Meta has unveiled plans to develop a hyperscale data center in Cheyenne, Wyoming. Once complete, the $800 million, 715,000 sq ft campus will be the Facebook owner’s 21st data center in the US and 25th globally.
“Cheyenne stood out as an outstanding location for Meta to call home for a number of reasons,” the company said this week. “It provides good access to infrastructure and energy, it has a strong pool of talent, and we have found a great set of community partners that have helped us move this project forward.”
Regional news publication Cowboy State Daily has been keeping a close eye on Meta’s expansion in Wyoming. According to the paper, a $1.2 billion solar project is planned near the data center with the capacity to produce enough electricity to run 771,000 homes.
Elsewhere, Amazon will partner with the Australian government for a cloud data system to handle top secret information, in a move that’s aimed at improving the nation’s cyber capabilities.
Deputy Prime Minister Richard Marles announced the partnership with Amazon Web Services, the company’s cloud division, at a press conference in Canberra this week, saying the government would invest at least A$2 billion ($1.3 billion) over the next decade in the new system.
The location of the data centers and the nature of the information they will be holding weren’t disclosed.
In other news, Gulf Energy will spend $271 million to expand its existing data center facility in Bangkok, Thailand, AQ Compute has started the construction of a new sustainable data center in Barcelona, Spain, and Northern Data is considering a $16 billion IPO as it looks to expand its data centers.
For more of the latest data center developments around the world, check out our July roundup.
Falling Short
In other hyperscale news this week, Google said its emissions shot up by 48% over five years, as the company has infused artificial intelligence throughout many of its core products – making it harder to meet its goal of eliminating carbon emissions by 2030.
Google’s annual sustainability report was released Tuesday (July 2) and covers the tech giant’s progress toward meeting its environmental goals. The company said its greenhouse gas emissions totaled 14.3 million metric tons of carbon dioxide equivalent throughout 2023. This is 48% higher than in 2019, the company said, and 13% higher than in 2022.
Google said higher energy consumption at its data centers and emissions from its supply chain were to blame and said its push to add AI to its products could make it more difficult to reduce emissions going forward.
“As we further integrate AI into our products, reducing emissions may be challenging due to increasing energy demands from the greater intensity of AI compute, and the emissions associated with the expected increases in our technical infrastructure investment,” Google wrote in the report.
Cool Runnings
Data Center Knowledge recently sat down with Peter de Bock, head of the US Department of Energy’s ARPA-E initiative, who discussed the critical challenges of data center cooling.
As AI workloads surge, efficient thermal management has become pivotal. In this exclusive interview, de Bock discusses the opportunities and hurdles impacting the COOLERCHIPS initiative, which aims to cut typical data center cooling energy to under 5%.
“As we further integrate AI into our products, reducing emissions may be challenging due to increasing energy demands from the greater intensity of AI compute, and the emissions associated with the expected increases in our technical infrastructure investment,” de Bock said.
Check out the full article to learn more.
Internet Speed Record Broken
And finally, an international team of researchers has set a new world record for the world’s fastest internet speed – at a blistering 402 terabits per second (Tb/s).
The team, led by the Photonic Network Laboratory of the National Institute of Information and Communications Technology (NICT) in Japan, demonstrated a record-breaking optical transmission bandwidth of 37.6 THz to enable the new data-rate record in a standard commercially available optical fiber.
At this speed, it would take just one minute to download every movie listed on the Internet Movie Database and less than a millisecond to install the popular video game, Elden Ring.
“It is expected that the data-rate of optical transmission systems required to enable ‘Beyond 5G’ information services will increase enormously,” NICT said in a press release. “New wavelength regions enable deployed optical fiber networks to perform higher data-rate transmission and extend the useful life of existing network systems.”
Other Great Reads on DCK This Week
Maximize ROI: 6 Key Questions for Effective Data Center Optimization. Ask these six essential questions to streamline your data center optimization efforts and enhance operational efficiency.
Patch Now: Cisco Zero-Day Under Fire From Threat Group. Threat actors are understood to be exploiting a vulnerability in Cisco’s NX-OS data center software.
Talen Energy Defends Interconnection Agreement for Amazon Data Center. It doesn’t appear that a protest by AEP and Exelon at the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission poses a significant risk to the agreement, according to observers.
Consumer Regulated Electricity: The Path to Faster, Reliable Power Solutions? There’s a growing understanding that we’re running out of electricity in the US. How can that be? More importantly, what can we do to fix it, asks Glen Lyons.
AI vs. ESG – A Pressing Business Conundrum. Balancing AI adoption with sustainability is a pressing challenge for businesses. Eva Sóley Guðbjörnsdóttir explains how strategic data center location can help.
CASPER, Wyo. — High school athletics in Wyoming could see some drastic changes in the coming years following legislative changes to the state’s education budget, the Wyoming High School Activities Association recently announced in a statement.
According to the WHSAA, Wyoming school districts are facing a projected $3.9 million shortfall in activities funding, forcing officials to consider significant cuts to high school sports and extracurricular programs.
The WHSAA shared details regarding a new “silo” funding model implemented by the Legislature, stating that the recalibrated block grant model reduced funding for student activities and extra-duty responsibilities from $46.3 million to $42.4 million, an approximately 8.4% decrease statewide.
WHSAA Commissioner Trevor Wilson said the restructuring also restricts district access to an additional $76.2 million in previously flexible funding.
“A significant portion of the [April 28 WHSAA Board of Directors] meeting was dedicated to discussing the projected funding shortfall,” Wilson wrote.
The WHSAA is weighing several strategies to address rising costs with fewer resources. Proposed changes include eliminating regional tournaments and reducing the number of teams qualifying for state events from eight to four; limiting wrestling to two classes and restricting track and field state participants to the top 16 marks; making cuts to soccer, indoor track and field, Nordic and Alpine skiing, swimming and diving, spring golf and tennis; and reducing in-person speech and debate events by half and centrally locating All-State Music events to minimize travel. The board also recommended increasing gate admission or implementing student participation fees to offset costs.
While the WHSAA release states that no plans have been finalized and the various changes are currently just possibilities, Natrona County School District 1 Board of Trustees member Mary Schmidt criticized the WHSAA’s handling of the news at Monday’s board meeting.
“I take some issues with this, [including] the sheer fact that we as Board of Trustees members have not talked about that at all,” Schmidt said. “It is not our intent and it has not been brought to us to cut our athletics or activities budget for the upcoming school year. … I take issue with them picking sports and getting the community upset and ginning them up to be upset that this is all going to be cut when that hasn’t been discussed.”
Later in the meeting, Superintendent Angela Hensley clarified that Natrona County School District 1’s athletics and activities budget saw a reduction of roughly $550,000 in the coming year’s budget, but said the local school district does not plan to cut any sports.
“Thank you, Trustee Schmidt, for saying this, because I think people are wondering — we are not planning to cut athletics and activities for next year,” Hensley said. “We do have to take a look at our entire budget as we have talked about, as we learn more about these new rules that come in.”
Related
Republished with permission from Wyoming News Now, a TV news outlet covering the Cheyenne and Casper areas.
Cheyenne City Council has introduced a temporary moratorium, or pause, on new data center construction.
“The end goal is to actually have regulations in place, to have really heavy public involvement with this with data centers,” said Councilman Mark Moody.
The proposed ordinance is not a permanent ban on data centers and would not affect data centers currently under construction.
Councilman Moody says this is a bipartisan issue.
“I just want to make this clear, I’m not against data centers. We do need them from a national security perspective,” he said.
He said there needs to be more public input and regulations regarding data centers in Cheyenne.
The ordinance would require city staff to study data center impacts such as electricity usage, electricity tariffs, closed-loop cooling systems, groundwater impacts, agricultural impacts, and land value.
Cheyenne LEADS, the economic development corporation for Cheyenne and Laramie County, reported in November 2025 that there are 12 operational data centers in Wyoming, five under construction and plans for 43 data centers announced across the state.
“There needs to be more public input with this, and also to see how many we can sustain here in this community, cause there are talks of 43, and then another day 70. How many can we sustain here?” said Councilman Moody.
The proposed moratorium will now go to the Public Services Committee on Monday, May 18 at noon in the Municipal Building.
Sheridan will play in the North Regional Tournament at Gillette, while the South Regional Tournament will be played at Rock Springs.
North Regional Tournament at Gillette:
Checking record vs. highest team in the quadrant not involved in the tie, Thunder Basin gets the #1 Northeast seed over Campbell County, because the Lady Bolts went 3-1 vs. Sheridan, whereas the Lady Camels went 2-2.
Friday, May 15th:
(#1 NE) Thunder Basin vs. (#4 NW) Jackson – 11am
(#2 NW) Natrona County vs. (#3 NE) Sheridan – 11am
(#2 NE) Campbell County vs. (#3 NW) Kelly Walsh – 1pm
(#1 NW) Cody vs. (#4 NE) Worland – 1pm
Semi-Finals:
Thunder Basin/Jackson winner vs. Natrona County/Sheridan winner – 3pm Winner qualifies for the state tournament.
Campbell County/Kelly Walsh winner vs. Cody/Worland winner – 5pm Winner qualifies for the state tournament.
Consolation Round:
Thunder Basin/Jackson loser vs. Natrona County/Sheridan loser – 3pm LOSER OUT!
Campbell County/Kelly Walsh loser vs. Cody/Worland loser – 5pm LOSER OUT!
Saturday, May 16th:
TBA vs. TBA – 10am LOSER OUT! Winner qualifies for the state tournament.
TBA vs. TBA – 10am LOSER OUT! Winner qualifies for the state tournament.
2 10am winners vs. each other – 1pm 3rd Place
TBA vs. TBA – 1pm 1st Place
South Regional Tournament at Rock Springs:
Friday, May 15th:
(#1 SW) Laramie vs. (#4 SE) Torrington – 11am
(#2 SE) Cheyenne East vs. (#3 SW) Green River – 11am
(#2 SW) Rock Springs vs. (#3 SE) Wheatland – 1pm
(#1 SE) Cheyenne Central vs. (#4 SW) Cheyenne South – 1pm
Semi-Finals:
Laramie/Torrington winner vs. Cheyenne East/Green River winner – 3pm Winner qualifies for the state tournament.
Rock Springs/Wheatland winner vs. Cheyenne Central/Cheyenne South winner – 5pm Winner qualifies for the state tournament.
Consolation Round:
Laramie/Torrington loser vs. Cheyenne East/Green River loser – 3pm LOSER OUT!
Rock Springs/Wheatland loser vs. Cheyenne Central/Cheyenne South loser – 5pm LOSER OUT!
Saturday, May 16th:
TBA vs. TBA – 10am LOSER OUT! Winner qualifies for the state tournament.
TBA vs. TBA – 10am LOSER OUT! Winner qualifies for the state tournament.
2 10am winners vs. each other – 1pm 3rd Place
TBA vs. TBA – 1pm 1st Place
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