Alaska's first big AI data center clears a hurdle on the North Slope

Alaska's first large AI data center cleared a hurdle this month, when the state issued a preliminary decision to lease STAK Energy about 715 acres some 26 miles south of Deadhorse.

There it proposes to build a gas-fired power plant and a computing campus in the same place: roughly a gigawatt of on-site generation — more than the entire peak demand of urban Alaska's grid — feeding modular high-performance computers cooled by Arctic air.

STAK says it would sell that power to "hyperscalers," the AI and cloud giants, rather than run the servers itself.

The approach sidesteps the problem that has defined North Slope gas for decades: there's no need for an 800-mile pipeline to tidewater if the customer sits next to the wellhead. If it works at Milepost 390, the same model could put stranded gas to use across the Arctic.

Big questions remain. STAK hasn't disclosed who is financing the project — cost estimates range from $500 million in state documents to more than $10 billion from the company's own strategy chief, John Boyle, a former state natural resources commissioner.

It has named no customer and hasn't disclosed a gas supplier — and the fact that its planned pipeline could run anywhere from 25 to 90 miles suggests the source isn't locked in.

STAK, which a year ago pitched a far smaller crypto-mining operation, is targeting construction this summer and operations by late 2028.

The response has been loud. More than 500 comments came in before an earlier deadline, the vast majority opposed — some objecting to powering AI with fossil fuel, others to industrializing the tundra. The state hasn't said how many came from Alaskans, and public land-use fights like this often draw comment from outside the state.

The new comment period on the lease runs through July 17.