Iowa AI data Center Progress

# Iowa’s Data Centers: What’s Built, What’s Coming

Iowa has quietly become one of the most active data center markets in the country. Most residents know one or two names — Google in Council Bluffs, Meta in Altoona — but the full picture is much bigger, and it’s spread across more of the state than most people realize. This is a plain reference: what’s actually operating, what’s under construction, and what’s been proposed but isn’t built yet.

But consider this. The numbers are often written in a way thats designed to scare, rather than inform. Written another way they dont seem like much of a problem at all.

Using EIA’s average-home basis, the confirmed total electricity used is more than every household in Iowa combined — and yet Iowa’s electricity rates have stayed among the lowest in the nation (6th-cheapest as of mid-2026, ~28% below the national average), in part because much of that demand is met by renewable, carbon free wind, which generated nearly two-thirds of Iowa’s electricity in 2024.

The total land footprint of all operational and proposed hyper scale data centers: Only about 4,400 acres, just 7 square miles total, vs. Iowa’s 23.9M acres of harvested cropland — data centers could grow 50x larger and still use under 1% of the state’s crop ground.

A note on the numbers before you read them: companies and cities disclose details unevenly. Some projects come with exact megawatt figures from utility filings; others are described only by acreage in a land deed or a single line in a city council packet. Where sources conflict or a figure hasn’t been made public, that’s noted directly rather than papered over.

The full list

Region	Company	Project	Status (as of June 2026)	Power	Land	Building	Notes
West Des Moines	Microsoft	Project Mountain	Operational since 2009; expanded 2011 and 2013	Not publicly disclosed	~40 acres (unconfirmed)	~415,000–480,000 sq ft (sources vary)	Microsoft’s first Iowa data center; two-building campus at 8855 Grand Ave.
West Des Moines	Microsoft	Project Alluvion	Operational	Not disclosed	Not disclosed	~1,160,000 sq ft, multi-building	Announced 2014, White Crane Road.
West Des Moines / Polk Co.	Microsoft	Project Ginger East	Under construction; targeted online 2027	444 MW	146 acres	~1,800,000 sq ft	This is the project on your list labeled simply “Project Ginger.” ~$1B investment.
West Des Moines	Microsoft	Project Ginger West	Under construction since 2021; first building online 2023, full buildout ~2028	~207 MW per most filings	~180 acres	~1,800,000 sq ft at full buildout	Location correction: this is on Booneville Road in West Des Moines, not Van Meter. ~$1.65B investment.
West Des Moines / Warren-Madison Co.	Microsoft	Project Osmium	Under construction; 4 of 5 buildings complete as of 2024	Not disclosed	200 acres (160 in Warren Co., 40 in Madison Co.)	~1.7M sq ft at full 5-building buildout	Your figure of 241,000 sq ft matches a single building, not the full campus. $1.5–2B invested; called the largest U.S. data center deployment Microsoft had built when announced in 2016.
West Des Moines / Madison Co.	Microsoft	Project Ruthenium	Phase 1 under construction; targeted online 2026	113 MW	103 acres	~245,000 sq ft (phase 1)	$210M phase-1 investment; site allows up to 4 buildings total.
Van Meter / Dallas Co.	Microsoft	Van Meter Campus	Land acquired in stages; first buildings reportedly starting construction in 2026	~1 GW planned at full buildout	~415–453 acres acquired to date	~2,270,000 sq ft (your figure) to ~3.3M sq ft at full 15-building plan	Microsoft’s 7th Iowa campus. No public project codename found — site is the long-designated “Vision Park.”
Altoona	Tract	Altoona Tech Park	Land fully entitled since Sept. 2025; construction start not yet confirmed publicly	1,000 MW (1GW+) planned	453 acres confirmed (your list says 468)	Not yet disclosed	Iowa’s largest single planned project by capacity; about a mile from Meta’s campus.
Altoona	Meta	Building 1	Operational 2014	42 MW	—	441,566 sq ft
Altoona	Meta	Building 3	Operational 2017	48 MW	—	528,861 sq ft
Altoona	Meta	Building 4	Operational 2019	48 MW	—	433,013 sq ft
Altoona	Meta	Building 5	Operational 2019	48 MW	—	416,736 sq ft
Altoona	Meta	Building 6	Operational 2020	48 MW	—	464,838 sq ft
Altoona	Meta	Building 7	Operational 2020	48 MW	—	414,376 sq ft
Altoona	Meta	Building 8	Operational 2022	48 MW	—	690,719 sq ft
Altoona	Meta	Building 9	Operational 2023	48 MW	—	415,864 sq ft
Altoona	Meta	Building 10	Operational 2023	48 MW	—	425,651 sq ft
Altoona	Meta	Building 12	Operational 2026	40 MW	—	130,380 sq ft	Meta’s own materials describe the completed campus as 10 buildings totaling ~5M sq ft — consistent with this list (it just skips numbers 2 and 11 in its building names).
Council Bluffs	Google	Council Bluffs Campus	Operational since 2009; expanded with the Southlands campus in 2013	Not broken out	Not broken out	~3,000,000 sq ft total across 3 buildings	Your “Campus 1, 250,000 sq ft” likely refers to just the original 2009 building — the full Council Bluffs footprint is much larger. Cumulative Google investment here exceeds $20B since 2007.
Council Bluffs	Edged	Project Lola	Approved in scaled-down form in 2025; construction start not confirmed	200 MW	Not disclosed	570,890 sq ft (two 285,445 sq ft buildings)	Originally planned at 900,000 sq ft across two 80-ft-tall buildings; both size and height were cut.
Waukee, Dallas Co. — not on your original list	Apple	Apple Waukee Campus	First building operational since November 2024; up to 5 buildings planned	Not disclosed	Not disclosed	~2,000,000 sq ft planned at full 5-building buildout	First announced 2017, delayed repeatedly; finally opened 7 years later. $1.3B total planned investment. Runs iCloud, App Store, Apple Music, and iMessage infrastructure for North America.
Cedar Rapids (Alliant territory)	QTS	Big Cedar Campus	Under construction; first of up to 7 buildings has topped out	616 MW	612 acres	~1,400,000 sq ft (consistent estimate; not itemized by QTS)	Up to $10B at full buildout ($750M initial phase); water-free cooling; $18M over 20 years pledged to a community fund.
Cedar Rapids (Alliant territory)	Google	Big Cedar Campus	First building seeking occupancy as of June 2026; up to 5 buildings planned	Conflicting figures — see note	414 acres confirmed	Not disclosed	$576M disclosed for the current phase. Your 600 MW figure could not be confirmed — one utility-adjacent source cites “at least 25 MW” for the initial interconnection. The gap likely reflects first-building load vs. full 5-building design capacity, but we can’t verify which.
Palo, Linn Co. (Alliant territory) — not on your original list	Google / NextEra	Duane Arnold Energy Center site	Zoning ordinance in final reading as of June 22, 2026; no formal data center application filed with the city yet; nuclear restart targeted for Q1 2029 pending NRC license	615 MW (the nuclear plant’s capacity, contracted via a 25-year PPA)	~545 acres proposed	Not yet disclosed	The single biggest gap in your list. This is the project directly tied to restarting Duane Arnold, Iowa’s only nuclear plant, dark since 2020. $1.6B+ restart cost; ~400 direct jobs.
Clinton	QTS	Clinton Campus	Very early planning; no site plan filed; city is still drafting a data center ordinance	Not disclosed	~1,100 acres (your list says 1,000)	Not disclosed	City council rejected a moratorium on new data centers June 9, 2026. Exact site location not finalized.
Adair Co.	Applied Digital	Adair County Data Center	Proposed; opposition and a setback/zoning ordinance fight ongoing	200 MW	Not disclosed	600,000 sq ft (two 300,000 sq ft buildings)	$1.5B proposed investment; connects via a dedicated substation tied to regional wind generation.
Des Moines, Polk Co.	Cielo Digital Infrastructure	Des Moines Campus	Planned / early development	150 MW originally announced; one tracker now lists 113 MW — unclear which is current	166 acres	Not disclosed	A 2026 operational target appears in one industry tracker but looks aggressive for a project still this early; treat with caution.

The full list

Sources

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