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$15bn Stargate Data Center Campus in Port Washington, Wisconsin to be Kneecapped as Residents Take to the Ballot

Home » Buildings » Data Center » $15bn Stargate Data Center Campus in Port Washington, Wisconsin to be Kneecapped as Residents Take to the Ballot

Updated on Apr 8, 2026

Joel Mairura

Stargate Data Center Campus in Port Washington

$15bn Stargate data center campus in Port Washington, Wisconsin is facing a major setback as residents revolt its development. Residents are set to vote today on a referendum that could reshape grassroots resistance to AI projects nationwide. The vote in Port Washington appears to be the first time any U.S. municipality will go to the ballot to kneecap data center development.

Moreover, it marks an aggressive new tactic in an escalating movement to oppose the hulking artificial intelligence factories. It also offers a potential blueprint for other small towns to challenge such developments across the U.S. However, if passed, the referendum will not actually derail the proposed 1.3-gigawatt data center campus.

Nonetheless, it will greatly hamper future developments regarding the project and other projects. Such projects will now require city leaders to obtain voter approval before awarding developers lucrative tax incentives. Another “Stargate” project taking shape is a 1GW data center campus in Indiana.

Despite the advancements in data center development, there are still challenges that are still to be addressed. For instance, for the Saline Township data center campus in Michigan, PIMCO is contemplating a $14bn debt financing agreement to build an Oracle data center. If finalized, the deal could make PIMCO a key backer of the Saline Township campus. Furthermore, the financing could be structured as a bond and the U.S. investment manager could syndicate some to other investments.

Outlook on the Stargate Data Center Campus in Port Washington, Wisconsin

The Stargate data center campus in Port Washington, Wisconsin is a Trump-backed project from OpenAI and Oracle. It is one of the multiple AI infrastructure megaprojects that the companies are planning with the president’s support. However, residents are having none of it. The backers, a group of roughly a dozen Port Washington residents who formed a nonprofit in October to organize against the project.

Moreover, they placed the measure on the ballot after connecting on Facebook and protesting at city council meetings. Organizers said that it took roughly 10 days to collect the approximately 1,000 signatures needed to qualify their measure. “None of us are specifically anti-development. We’re not even really anti-tech. It’s just that we want responsible development, and we want responsible tech moving forward,” noted Carri Prom, co-founder of nonprofit Great Lakes Neighbors United.

In emails to POLITICO, spokespeople for OpenAI and Oracle touted the Port Washington project’s expected financial benefits and sustainable features. These include a closed-loop cooling system that recycles water. Moreover, it will primarily on zero-emissions energy sources and create 4,000 skilled construction jobs.

Stargate Data Center Campus in Port Washington
$15bn Stargate data center campus in Port Washington, Wisconsin is facing a major setback as residents revolt its development.

Project Overview

  • Project Name: Stargate Data Center Campus
  • Project Type: AI data center campus
  • Estimated Cost: $15bn
  • Capacity: ~1.3 GW
  • Purpose: AI infrastructure
  • Status: At risk (referendum)

Key Stakeholders

  • Backers: OpenAI, Oracle
  • Support: U.S. federal backing (Trump administration)
  • Community Group: Great Lakes Neighbors United

Location

  • Site: Port Washington, Wisconsin
  • Country: United States

Scope

  • Large-scale AI data center campus
  • ~1.3 GW planned capacity
  • Multiple facilities
  • Advanced cooling systems

Funding / Delivery Model

  • Private sector investment
  • Incentive-based local agreements
  • Subject to public approval (referendum impact)

Status

  • Stage: Pre-development
  • Issue: Public referendum vote
  • Impact: May restrict incentives, not cancel project

Key Risks & Challenges

  • Strong community opposition
  • Policy uncertainty (voter approval)
  • Political sensitivity
  • Permitting complexity

Strategic Significance

  • Major AI infrastructure project
  • Tests public approval model
  • Signals rising resistance to data centers
  • Could set national precedent

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Comments

2 responses to “$15bn Stargate Data Center Campus in Port Washington, Wisconsin to be Kneecapped as Residents Take to the Ballot”

  1. Michael Paulson Avatar
    Michael Paulson

    I have been working in IT since the days of Windows XP and much of my job is as a network engineer. So building networks and servers themselves. I will vote against any attempt to build a Data Center in or near my city. The tech has not proven cost effective because not many are interested in cloud computing/A.I. and are pushing back against it. Also many don’t understand the amount of power needed to run even a 4 or 5 server network 24/7. With a datacenter we are not talking about 500–1000 wats an hour. We are talking about kilowatts. Meaning the entire power usage by a datacenter is measured going to be over 1000 wats per hour for a single server in it. Add up all the wats being used and hour and that pushes that total wattage an hour for every system combined close to a million wats an hour.

    Another big concern is cooling and noise. Truth is the more power a server needs and the faster it runs, the more heat it generates. So servers tend to have cooling racks in them to constantly pull hot air out of them and blow it out of the back. That means many small fans that sound like a helicopter taking off running 24/7. For example a house fan makes about 50 to 200 rotations per min and a server fan not even half the size doing 1600 rotations per min. So most server rooms have a good amount of noise isolation in them to ensure everyone in the office isn’t hearing those fans running while at work. But I don’t see a data center going all out with noise isolation and that’s why people in cities and towns near them are reporting hearing a constant background hum in the area since one was built.

    Sure you can setup a liquid cooling system for a server. But with a data center you need to ask where is all the water needed going to come from and if they need to flush the system where is the water going to go? The truth is with a liquid cooling system it’s not just water. Most of the time it’s desilted water with a corrosion inhibitor and anti-biological supplement in it to prevent the growth of mold in the system. Some fluids also have glycol aka anti-freeze in them as well. So you don’t want to pour a lot of the cooling liquid down the sink if you need to change it. Also I’d not want a data center flushing their system and simply dumping it outside. Because I don’t want to risk it ending up in the ground water and that creating some issues with the local water supply.

    Last big issue is local infrastructure. The power needs of a data center and going to be close to a smallish town or a medium sized town in the end. If your not 100% sure your local electrical grid can handle the power demand of one, I’d push back. Because you don’t want random power outages or to be able to get less power wattage in your town or city due to the data center demanding more then your local power grid can provide. Some companies are trying to include a small natural gas based power station in data center builds. Because the power usage is that high and they don’t know if the local grid can handle it.

    So in the end that is things that people need to think about and things people trying to sell you on a data center near your town or city will avoid talking about. Because like A.I. companies they are trying to work fast, make as much money as they can now before the bubble really pop’s. Because data centers go hand and hand with AI. But when you look at the recent stock trends of Nvidia and the on going unraveling of OpenAI as a company the AI bubble is playing out like a slow motion car crash.

  2. Jane Hindrix Avatar
    Jane Hindrix

    To bad they didn’t kill. AI does not live up to the uninformed Hype and corporate PR. Do yourself a favor. Get in to the guts of it and you will see.

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