Microsoft has said it intends to purchase about 3,200 acres in Cheyenne, Wyoming, for a new datacenter expansion, marking another large step in the company’s long-running buildout in the state. The announcement says the project will extend Microsoft’s existing datacenter footprint in Cheyenne and will unfold over a multiyear planning and development process that still includes public hearings.
The land package is split into two parts: about 200 acres in Bison Business Park on Wapiti Trail east of South Greeley Highway, and another 3,000 acres in Southeast Cheyenne next to that parcel. The location sits southeast of downtown, and the expansion is meant to support technology-driven economic activity, innovation, and job creation in Southeast Wyoming.
Microsoft says the Cheyenne datacenter expansion is only the beginning of a multiyear process, and it explicitly notes that several steps will require public hearings. That matters because datacenter projects of this size are usually shaped as much by local permitting, utility planning, and community review as by engineering. The company says it wants formal and informal engagement with residents so that operations and community investment align with local needs.
“Since the development of our first datacenter in 2012, Microsoft has been working to strengthen, not strain, the community of Cheyenne,” said Bowen Wallace, Corporate Vice President, Datacenters-Americas Region at Microsoft. “We’re excited to continue our growth in the state, bringing more investment, opportunity and tax revenue to the community we’ve been a part of for more than 14 years.”
Microsoft has committed more than $68 million in completed and future off-site infrastructure improvements across Cheyenne, including roadway and storm sewer work, trail and greenway improvements, new pump stations, and municipal water upgrades. That means the datacenter plan is tied to public-facing infrastructure as well as private compute capacity.
Microsoft will pay its way so that datacenter development does not increase electricity prices for local customers. The company’s agreement with Black Hills Energy is governed by the Large Power Contract Service tariff, which requires Microsoft to directly pay for the infrastructure upgrades and power procurement needed to serve its load. Black Hills says the structure protects base retail customers from rate impacts while meeting Microsoft’s growing energy demand.
That utility arrangement is important because data center expansion in the U.S. is increasingly being judged through a power-and-water lens, not just a technology lens. The investors are pressing Amazon, Microsoft, and Google for more information about water use and power consumption at their U.S. data centers, and Reuters also reported on March 24 that Microsoft President Brad Smith said community trust is now essential for building datacenters in the U.S. Those reports frame the broader backdrop for the Cheyenne move: local support and resource planning now sit at the center of hyperscale growth.
Microsoft is also trying to answer those concerns with environmental claims built into the Cheyenne announcement. The company says it will continue to bring additional wind and other carbon-free electricity to the Western Electricity Coordinating Council and will match every kilowatt hour of fossil-fuel-based consumption one for one with carbon-free energy it procures. It will minimize water use and replenish more water than it consumes, including through replenishment projects it says are expected to restore an estimated 566 million gallons in the Mississippi-Missouri and Colorado River basins.
Microsoft’s project will require thousands of skilled tradespeople during construction and will create hundreds of full-time jobs in IT, security, and maintenance once the facilities are operating. Microsoft also points to its Datacenter Academy with Laramie County Community College, saying the program has trained more than 1,000 students since launching in 2019.
The company says its first datacenter in the city dates back to 2012, and it has been working in the community for more than 14 years. A 2025 DatacenterDynamics report also noted that Microsoft had started a new datacenter project on HR Ranch Road in Cheyenne, with construction expected to run 18 to 24 months and finish in early 2026. The new land purchase suggests that Microsoft sees Wyoming as more than a single-campus market; it is treating the region as a continuing infrastructure base for cloud and AI growth.
Microsoft is still adding a physical footprint for a business that increasingly depends on power, land, cooling, and local approvals. The Cheyenne plan shows that datacenter expansion is no longer just a corporate real-estate decision.
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