Build Wisconsin Better

Slow Down.
Get Informed.
Build Smarter.

Wisconsin communities are being targeted by Silicon Valley for hyperscale AI data centers without truth, transparency or accountability.

We are connecting communities to empower the people of Wisconsin to decide our future.

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"The people of Wisconsin should decide the future of Wisconsin. Not Big Tech."

We are informing communities and local officials with accurate information to help even the playing field against PR and hype.

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Where It's Happening

Wisconsin Data Center Projects

17 tracked projects. Data from PoweredByWho. Tap any project to explore.

Find Your People

Community Groups

Residents across Wisconsin are already organizing. If a proposal is coming to your community, you don't have to start from scratch.

Caledonia Residents for Responsible Development

Caledonia · Racine County

This is a made up placeholder group.

Beaver Dam Community Voice

Beaver Dam · Dodge County

This is also a made up placeholder group.

Menomonie Neighbors Network

Menomonie · Dunn County

Totally made up.

Fox Valley Farmers

Greenleaf / Wrightstown · Brown County

The farmers are real but this group is just a place holder.

Kenosha Kickers

Kenosha · Kenosha County

Polka. Polka. Polka.

Is your group missing?

We want this list to be as complete as possible. Submissions are reviewed before going live.

Why This Matters

What We Stand For

Too often details are concealed, residents are misled and communities are broken.

Truth

Too often details are concealed, residents are misled and communities are broken.

Transparency

Your community deserves transparency on water use, energy demand, chemicals, taxes, property value protection and infrastructure costs.

Accountability

Communities deserve elected officials who represent them, not corporations, when billion-dollar deals are on the table.

Intelligent Growth

Silicon Valley says move fast and break things. We don't believe in that entitlement in Wisconsin. We believe in Measure Twice, Cut Once. We respect our neighbors and value the next generation over the next quarter.

The Bigger Picture

Why Is Wisconsin in the Crosshairs?

Data center companies aren't choosing Wisconsin by accident. Our fresh water, open land, cooler climate, and generous tax incentive programs make us one of the most attractive targets in the country. Proposals are already underway in communities from Caledonia to Cassville to Menomonie.

Freshwater Access

A single hyperscale facility can consume millions of gallons of water every day. Wisconsin's proximity to the Great Lakes and its abundant groundwater make it one of the most attractive locations in the country for this kind of large-scale industrial water demand.

Cool Climate Advantage

Wisconsin's cooler climate significantly reduces the cost of keeping servers cool year-round, one of the largest operating expenses for these facilities. Lower costs for them means higher demand on our grid and water supply.

Available Land

Hundreds of acres of Wisconsin farmland are available at a fraction of what similar parcels cost in coastal markets. That land, once converted to a data center campus, is rarely farmland again.

Tax Incentives

State sales tax exemptions and TIF financing can dramatically reduce what these companies pay into your community for decades. Someone still pays for the roads, the schools, the fire station. Often that's you.

Energy Infrastructure

A single hyperscale facility can demand as much electricity as a mid-size city. Wisconsin's grid capacity makes it a prime target, but grid expansions don't pay for themselves, and those costs are typically passed to ratepayers.

"Once the land is committed and the tax deals are signed, the community lives with those choices for a generation."

That's worth slowing down for.

Who We Are

Neighbors, Not Outsiders

We're Wisconsin residents who've seen these proposals arrive in our own communities. We know what it's like to feel outpaced by a process designed to move fast.

Wisconsin neighbors, not national organizations. Pro-community, not anti-development. For transparency, above all.
AM

Adam Magnuson

Co-Founder

Greenleaf, WI

Born and raised near Green Bay, Adam co-founded LedgeStone Vineyards and a brewery along the Fox River in Wrightstown. In January 2026, a proposed hyperscale AI data center across the road from his vineyard changed things. He found himself asking questions that no one in the room could fully answer, and realized his community wasn't the only one that needed to ask them. His belief is simple: progress that can't withstand honest questions isn't progress worth making.

PB

Prescott Balch

Co-Founder

Caledonia, WI

Prescott spent his career in financial services building the kind of large-scale software infrastructure that runs inside data centers. When a proposal arrived in his Caledonia community in 2025, he understood the technical claims being made and, more importantly, what was being left unsaid. He has been helping communities across the Midwest get to the full picture ever since.

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Coming Soon

More community members joining the effort.

Self-funded by community members. No corporate backing. No political affiliation.

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This isn't just a mailing list. When a proposal comes to your community, we connect you with the people, resources, and answers that matter, before the process gets ahead of you.

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Read for Yourself

What Wisconsin Journalists Are Finding

Reporters across the state are digging into data center proposals and what they mean for communities, ratepayers, and the land and water Wisconsin depends on.

Transparency

At least four Wisconsin communities signed secrecy deals for billion-dollar data centers

Wisconsin Watch · January 2026

An investigation revealing that Beaver Dam, Menomonie, Kenosha, and Janesville all signed NDAs with developers before any public announcements. Seven major projects statewide with a combined estimated value exceeding $57 billion were identified.

Energy & Costs

As energy-hungry data centers loom, Wisconsin ratepayers owe $1 billion on shuttered power plants

Wisconsin Watch / WPR · December 2025

Wisconsin ratepayers still carry nearly $1 billion in debt from coal plant closures while utilities seek approval for new natural gas plants to power data centers. In an October 2025 poll, 55% of Wisconsin residents said data center costs outweigh benefits.

Tax Incentives

Rural Wisconsin Has Become a Hotspot for Data Centers. The State's Unique Tax Instrument Explains Why.

The Daily Yonder · January 2026

How Wisconsin's sales tax exemption and TIF financing structure combine to make rural communities uniquely attractive to hyperscale developers, and what that means for the Wisconsin Farm Bureau's concerns about agricultural land.

Community Action

Why rural Wisconsin is blocking the AI data center boom: 'Horses are skittish'

CNBC · November 2025

Documents the rejection of Microsoft's proposed 244-acre data center in Caledonia, where 40 of 49 public speakers opposed the plan. One of the first high-profile community victories against a Big Tech data center in Wisconsin.

Water

Microsoft data centers will use up to 8.4 million gallons of water each year, records show

Wisconsin Public Radio · 2025

Using publicly filed records, WPR established that Microsoft's Mount Pleasant campuses alone will consume up to 8.4 million gallons of water annually in a village of roughly 27,000 people.

Transparency

Lawsuit seeks release of expected energy demand from Meta data center in Beaver Dam

Wisconsin Public Radio · December 2025

The Public Service Commission refused to release projected energy demand figures for Meta's Beaver Dam facility, citing trade secrets, prompting a legal challenge by Midwest Environmental Advocates.

Land & Eminent Domain

A 600-acre AI data center could cost some Wisconsin residents their land

ABC News · February 2026

Utility infrastructure for data centers is now reaching private landowners through eminent domain. Profiles an 83-year-old landscape painter whose 52-acre prairie in Saukville is threatened by a required transmission line.

Tax Incentives

Local leaders see data centers as revenue boon, but critics say subsidy programs undermine those efforts

Wisconsin Public Radio · 2025

Local governments cite property tax revenue as a benefit, but state-level sales tax exemptions and TIF mechanisms substantially reduce or defer the actual yield. TIDs can remain open for up to 20 years.

Water

Report says growing demand from data centers, industry could stress Great Lakes water

Wisconsin Public Radio · 2025

Data centers may withdraw up to 150 billion gallons of water nationally over the next five years. Great Lakes states are largely unprepared, with Wisconsin's Central Sands region cited as an early warning.

Follow Wisconsin Watch's ongoing coverage

They are tracking every major data center proposal in the state.

Read their coverage