• Strategy centers on high-density power at one site
• Creekstone making “significant progress” with first tenant

The road to winning the AI race is to give someone the most power in one place, Creekstone Energy CEO Ray Conley told NPM in an interview.

That’s why Creekstone’s sole focus is on building out its USD 17bn, 10 GW Utah campus, rather than developing projects in various locations.

“The path to success is not a whole bunch of extra sites,” Conley said. “The path to success is the most power in a single location, so you can have the highest power density to have the most compute.”

The strategy centers on bringing power from multiple independent sources to maximize power density and compute capacity.

Plans for Creekstone’s flagship campus in Millard County include multiple AI data centers to be located on more than 10,000 acres.

The campus is intended to operate largely off-grid using a mix of natural gas, solar generation, battery energy storage and imported power from the Intermountain Power Project (IPP).

Other developers are pursuing large projects at a single site, such as Fermi America’s Project Matador, Energy Abundance’s Data City, and Homer City Redevelopment.

Strategic site

Choosing the site, where Creekstone currently owns 1,143 acres, was strategic.

Conley said the project has avoided many regulatory challenges seen in other large-scale developments, with its local and state support.

In the last six months, the county signed off on entitlements needed to advance the project, and recently, the Utah Governor’s Office of Economic Opportunity awarded the developer up to USD 172m in tax incentives for the project. The incentive is a 50%, 20-year post-performance tax reduction based on an anticipated USD 344m in new state tax revenue generated by the campus.

In March, Creekstone finalized a long-term land and solar lease with the Utah School and Institutional Trust Lands Administration (SITLA) covering approximately 13,000 acres for solar development, with more than 1 GW planned over the next 18 months.

In February, Creekstone also signed a memorandum of understanding with Zeo Energy to develop approximately 280 MW of baseload power using solar generation and long-duration storage.

Early-stage construction began late last year, anchored by a gas interconnect that will feed the initial phase.

The interconnect agreement was executed in September and provides an initial capacity of 43,000 Dth/day – or roughly 230 MW – with completion expected within the next few months.

Once completed, Creekstone plans to ramp civil work and begin vertical construction – each building is anticipated to take at least 12 months to complete.

Though the developer wouldn’t disclose who, Creekstone has made “significant progress on moving forward” with the first big tenant, to be announced in the coming months, Conley said.

Initial data center capacity is expected to come online next summer.

Across Utah, NPM is tracking 40 planned, under construction and operational data centers.