Only 10% of the capital used to construct a 500-megawatt data center in rural Montana would go toward local companies, according to a scenario modeled by the University of Montana’s Bureau of Business and Economic Research.

Most of the $20 billion required to jumpstart the campus would go toward buying computers, which are often imported from abroad. The true influx of cash to local communities would arrive after the campus started paying taxes. 

"Our estimate is that’s about a $33 million a year tax bill that they’ll be paying,” Director Jeffrey Michael said at a midyear economic update that the business bureau hosted in Kalispell this week. 

In Broadwater School District, where the bureau placed the data center in its scenario, the uptick in taxes from the facility would decrease residential property taxes from about 430 mils to 338 mils.  

The impacts vary by location and the size of the data center, Michael said. Urban districts may see less of a reduction in residential property taxes as the benefits are spread across a larger population. The bigger the data center, meanwhile, the more equipment and land there is to tax. 

The same goes for jobs. A 500-megawatt campus would generate about 170 long-term jobs, according to Michael’s estimates. A 2,000-megawatt facility would come with closer to 370 long-term, on-site jobs. 

The scenario Michael presented is strictly hypothetical, but it does bear a close resemblance to a proposed 5,000-acre data center campus near Broadview. Similar projects recently proposed outside Bonner, Great Falls and Butte are snagged on widespread local opposition, with residents and advocacy groups raising concerns about potential environmental and energy impacts.  

Cooling systems for the massive computer banks can consume relatively large amounts of water. Backup generators and other equipment used in daily operations are often loud, raising anxieties about the potential for noise pollution in nearby communities.  

Advocacy groups in Montana have also pushed for more clarity on how public utilities would fulfill the sizable energy quotas of proposed data centers. The Broadview data center alone would more than double the daily energy supply needs of NorthWestern Energy, according to complaint filed with the Montana Public Service Commission in November 2025. The nine groups behind the complaint argued that existing utility customers would likely foot the bill for transmission and generation upgrades made to meet the electrical needs of large data centers. 

The data center boom hasn’t hit Northwest Montana in the same way it has the rest of the state, and Community Relations Manager for Flathead Electric Cooperative Katie Pfennigs said the Flathead Valley isn’t likely to host a campus anytime soon. 

“Here locally, really we haven’t seen a lot of these large new loads come onto our system, I think for a number of reasons,” she said in a June episode of Discover Kalispell’s podcast “Venture Boldly.” “Property costs are very high here in the Flathead, we all know that, and, at this point, the transmission system coming into our valley is getting more and more constrained, and so to think about bringing on a very, very large new load is probably just not feasible at this time.” 

Reporter Hailey Smalley can be reached at 406-758-4433 or [email protected]. If you value local journalism, pledge your support at dailyinterlake.com/support.