AVAIO Digital Leo Campus

Timeline from the record

Newest first. Record entries come from the filings and reports the registry cites. Coverage entries are headlines from publisher feeds we monitor daily, linked to the outlet; last checked September 14, 2026.

1. January 2026

   Proposed
   AVAIO Digital announces $6B+ AI-ready data center campus in Pulaski County; Governor Sanders describes it as largest economic investment in Arkansas history; construction targeted Q1 2026 start Source: Arkansas Economic Development Commission

Opposition and litigation at this site

Yes. AVAIO Digital Leo Campus in Pulaski County, Arkansas is contested. Hearings, public comment, petitions, or organized opposition are on record. Pulaski County adopted a one-year data-center moratorium (10 votes) in May 2026 but exempted AVAIO by a bare 8-vote majority, the minimum on the 15-member Quorum Court.

How the community has taken it

Reception is a sourced signal, not an editorial judgment: contested means active public debate is on record, with hearings, petitions, or organized opposition, without litigation.

Pulaski County adopted a one-year data-center moratorium (10 votes) in May 2026 but exempted AVAIO by a bare 8-vote majority, the minimum on the 15-member Quorum Court. Residents opposed the project over water use and farmland; it is backed by state and county leadership and the Little Rock Regional Chamber.

Source: UALR Public Radio

Power and water

150 MW contracted from Entergy Arkansas (grid supply; energized Q2 2027 per the January 2026 announcement, Q4 2027 per AVAIO's development page as of October 2026); additional substantial on-site natural gas infrastructure planned (the January 2026 announcement gives no capacity; as of October 2026, AVAIO's development page lists "500 MW Total Baseload BTM" without naming the fuel); up to 1 GW anticipated total demand as facility grows. Rainwater capture, rooftop solar, and advanced cooling economization also planned.

AVAIO's project manager testified to the Pulaski County Quorum Court that the campus would demand about 200,000 gallons of water per day on average during warmer months, dropping to near zero in winter; as of July 6, 2026, the specific cooling technology had not been disclosed. At a community meeting in Wrightsville on July 13, 2026, AVAIO said it planned a closed-loop cooling system that recirculates water and would consume 8,000 gallons a day of potable water from Central Arkansas Water, with 4,000 gallons a day discharged into the 145th Street Sewer District (Arkansas Times). Both figures are company projections; the campus is not yet operating.

Public money on the record

Notes on the record

Location: off Interstate 530 near 145th Street, Pulaski County; coordinates are approximate for the I-530 corridor south of Little Rock. Named after the Leo constellation. Initial $6B investment may grow to $21B through full build-out. First phase completion targeted June 2027. Campus sits near long-haul fiber routes connecting Dallas, Atlanta, and Memphis. A Q1 2026 construction start was planned as of announcement. As of October 2026, AVAIO's development page says AVAIO "has broken ground" on the campus, while at a July 13, 2026 community meeting AVAIO's project manager said construction was expected to begin in early 2027, with the permits needed to start earthworks in hand (Arkansas Times); the record is listed as proposed. The 760-acre land area is the site size given in the January 2026 announcement and the July 2026 Arkansas Times account; as of October 2026, AVAIO's development page describes a 296-acre project located about 7.7 km from the map pin, which stays approximate. The January 2026 announcement says AVAIO anticipates power demand of up to 1 GW as the facility grows; that is a ceiling on power demand, not IT capacity, so no planned capacity is recorded. The energy source is mixed rather than on-site gas. The 150 MW figure is the Entergy Arkansas grid supply contract, not on-site generation, and as of July 2026 on-site gas capacity was unquantified in sources. The recorded 500 MW of on-site generation is from AVAIO's development page for the campus, which lists "500 MW Total Baseload BTM" (behind the meter) alongside "570 MW Total Grid Power" and "1,070 MW Total Baseload Power"; as of October 2026, the page does not name the fuel for the behind-the-meter capacity. Arkansas's data-center sales-and-use tax exemption (Act 819 of 2023, expanded by Act 548 of 2025) likely applies given the investment scale. AVAIO's development page states that "the State of Arkansas offers substantial Sales and Use Tax incentives for data center tenants, reducing total cost of ownership on qualifying capital expenditures", but as of October 2026 names no award or amount; as of July 2026 no AVAIO-specific incentive award had been published.

Other sites within 30 miles

Distances are between recorded coordinates, many of which are a city or county centroid, so treat them as approximate. Cumulative load on one utility and one aquifer is the question a planning commission rarely asks.

• Port of Little Rock Data Center · Little Rock · Google5 mi · Proposed
• Mainstream Technologies Little Rock Data Center · Little Rock · Mainstream Technologies5 mi · Operating
• Sollensys Little Rock Data Center · Little Rock · Sollensys Corp8 mi · Operating
• TierPoint Little Rock · Little Rock · TierPoint10 mi · Operating
• Interstate Holdings Blockchain Cabot Mine · Cabot · Interstate Holdings Blockchain26 mi · Operating · Contested
• Sheridan Data Center (Clean Cloud Energy, Grant County) · Sheridan · Clean Cloud Energy (Sheridan Data Center LLC)26 mi · Proposed · 800 MW · Contested
• ForgeLight Ventures Conway Data Center · Conway · ForgeLight Ventures, LLC28 mi · Proposed · Opposed
• Interstate Holdings Blockchain Vilonia Mine (proposed, denied) · Vilonia · Interstate Holdings Blockchain30 mi · Cancelled · Opposed

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