Rural Montana Town Divided Over AI Data Center

I was up near the small town of Broadview before the sun came up this week, looking for Canadian geese in frozen fields. Same land I have been hunting for years. Same wind. Same dry smell of the prairie dust that never quite goes away anymore. If you have ever been to that part of Montana, you know how fragile the margin already seems. Less rain. Drier soil. Increased pressure on ranchers who are already struggling to earn a living from it.

So when it came out that an enormous AI data center was being proposed right next to Broadview, residents took notice. Not because they hate technology. But since they know what water and power mean out there. And they are perfectly within their rights to question.

According to KPAX, the data center is reported to be about 5,000 acres and could eventually draw tech giants such as Meta, Google, or Apple. In a community of only 130 people, that is not development. That is a seismic shift.

Why Folks Are Nervous

Broadview already lives with drought. More than two decades of it. So when residents hear of a facility that could use enormous amounts of electricity and water, now you have red flags. Many area residents are worried about water consumption, power draw, noise, and whether tax incentives may be given without transparency, KPAX reports.

Those anxieties are not anti-progress. They are Montana common sense. It doesn't matter how fancy the server racks are when your well runs dry.

AI Data Centers Aren’t Created Equal

This is where nuance matters. I contacted Missoula entrepreneur Joshua Rhines, who is in the AI infrastructure area, for a reality check. His take was blunt.

“Big projects like this do have a lot of community impact,” Rhines told me. “The big downside for these large data centers is that they are so large.”

Smaller prototype versions do exist, he said. His company, CubCloudAI, is aiming to retrofit existing buildings, operate facilities at 1 megawatt or lower, and use closed-loop water systems that consume less than 10,000 gallons annually. To put that in perspective, the average Missoula household consumes about 120,000 gallons a year.

That contrast is everything.

The problem is not AI. The issue is scaling with no regard for the land.

What Montana Should Demand

I am a backer of AI data centers in Montana. I want the jobs. I want the tax base. I want the state to be in the future. But not if that means drying out places like Broadview.

If such projects, like CubCloud AI, can be powered by renewable energy, utilize closed-loop water systems, and fit the real limits of a rural economy and infrastructure, they just might be able to exist side by side with the pronghorn antelope and cows.

Out in those open prairies, you can see what happens when the balance shifts. The grass gets shorter. The critters move on. The wells struggle.

Montana does not have to pick tech or tradition. Our state could soon be on the cutting edge of a tech boom. But we do have to demand that tech respects the land.