Measure Twice
Cut Once.
Wisconsin communities are being targeted by Silicon Valley for hyperscale AI data centers without truth, transparency or accountability. We need financial penalties that actually hold Big Tech accountable.
We are connecting communities to empower the people of Wisconsin to decide our future.
Get Connected"The people of Wisconsin should decide the future of Wisconsin. Not Big Tech. - Charlie Berens"
We are informing communities and local officials with accurate information to help even the playing field against PR and hype.
Get InformedWhere It's Happening
Wisconsin Data Center Projects
17 tracked projects. Data from PoweredByWho. Tap any project to explore.
Wisconsin Data Center Map
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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.
Great Lakes Neighbors United
Port Washington · Ozaukee County
Driven by residents who refuse to stay silent, our mission is simple: demand transparency, hold leaders accountable, and ensure our community’s voice is heard. We’re standing up for our environment, our neighborhoods, and the future of our home.
Beaver Dam Education on Data Center Group
Beaver Dam · Dodge County
->will shortly turn into BD & surrounding area
GROWW - Uniting West Wisconsin
Menomonie · Dunn County
A centralized group for all things regarding the Data Center that is being proposed in Menomonie. A place for us to communicate and organize against this unwanted development.
South Wood County Neighbors for Responsible Development
Wisconsin Rapids · Wood County
South Wood County Neighbors for Responsible Development is a non-partisan group of concerned citizens that are in favor of responsible economic development, but do not feel large-scale data centers are a responsible choice for Wisconsin Rapids, WI and surrounding communities. We want to keep everyone informed and empowered to have their voices heard. We value the health and safety of our economy and environment. We protect our river, not pollute!
Rock County Neighbors For Responsible Development
Beloit/Rock County · Rock County
A news article broke pointing to a possible A.I. Data Center Development in the Town of Beloit, Wisconsin, just north of the city of Beloit. We are organizing neighbors to keep everyone who could be affected by this development informed and empowered to have their voices heard.
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Community Directory
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We'll review it and get your group on the list. This usually takes a few days.
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, health, 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.
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.
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.
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.
Charlie Berens
Co-Founder
Milwaukee, WI
Charlie Berens is a comedian and Emmy winning journalist from Wisconsin who believes in transparency and communities deciding their future, not Big Tech.
Pete Morris
TBD
Maily Kocinski
Maily Kocinski is a lifelong Wisconsin resident, educator, researcher, and rural property owner in the Town of Trenton near Beaver Dam. After experiencing dramatic and unexplained water system changes near the Meta data center construction site beginning in 2025, she began documenting creek disruptions, neighboring well impacts, regulatory responses, and hydrologic concerns affecting her community. Her work focuses on environmental transparency, groundwater protection, regulatory accountability, and the impacts of large-scale data center development on rural communities. Through public presentations, independent research, documentation, and media interviews, she advocates for science-based investigation, community awareness, and stronger protections for residents living near industrial development projects.
Coming Soon
More community members joining the effort.
Self-funded by community members. No corporate backing. No political affiliation.
Get Involved
Get Connected
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.
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.
A Small Town Voted Against a $16 Billion Dollar AI Data Center. Weeks Later Construction Began
Fortune · May 12, 2026
The $16 billion data center for OpenAI and Oracle’s Stargate AI infrastructure initiative, which will fundamentally reshape the area of Saline Township, Michigan with its construction, traffic, electricity demand, and environmental impact, was flat-out rejected by both the town’s board and its planning commission in September. But those votes turned out to be only minor bumps on the project’s path: The developer quickly sued, the town settled, and the construction vehicles rolled in.
Read article
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.
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At least four Wisconsin communities signed secrecy deals for billion-dollar data centers
Wisconsin Watch · 2026-01-26
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.
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Rural Wisconsin Has Become a Hotspot for Data Centers. The State's Unique Tax Instrument Explains Why.
The Daily Yonder · 2026-01-22
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.
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As energy-hungry data centers loom, Wisconsin ratepayers owe $1 billion on shuttered power plants
Wisconsin Watch / WPR · 2025-12-18
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.
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Lawsuit seeks release of expected energy demand from Meta data center in Beaver Dam
Wisconsin Public Radio · 2025-12-10
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.
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Why rural Wisconsin is blocking the AI data center boom: 'Horses are skittish'
CNBC · 2025-11-25
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.
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Microsoft data centers will use up to 8.4 million gallons of water each year, records show
Wisconsin Public Radio · 2025-09-17
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.
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Report says growing demand from data centers, industry could stress Great Lakes water
Wisconsin Public Radio · 2025-09-03
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.
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Local leaders see data centers as revenue boon, but critics say subsidy programs undermine those efforts
Wisconsin Public Radio · 2025-05-14
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.
Read articleFollow Wisconsin Watch's ongoing coverage
They are tracking every major data center proposal in the state.