Data Center Registry
Jefferson Proving Ground Data Center
Madison, Jefferson County, Indiana
Jefferson Proving Ground Data Center is a permitted data center in Madison, Indiana (Jefferson County), operated by Undisclosed. The public record puts it at announced 2026, 549 acres. It faces documented, organized local opposition.
Every line on this page traces to a public source listed at the bottom. Where a figure was looked for and not found, the row says so. A blank is never a zero.
Facility record
Permitted
- Operator
- Undisclosed
- Facility type
- Data center, AI use likely
- Location
- Madison, Jefferson County, IN
- Coordinates
- 38.8200, -85.4000 (approximate)
- Power capacity
- Not established from a public source
- Land
- 549 acres
- Investment
- Not established from a public source
- Announced
- 2026
- Utility
- Not established from a public source
- Cooling
- Not established from a public source
- Water use
- Not established from a public source
- Jobs
- Not established from a public source
- Public subsidy
- Not established from a public source
- Community reception
- Opposed
- Source confidence
- Reported by at least one credible outlet or filing
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.
- May 2026PermittedJefferson County Board of Zoning Appeals denied an appeal and county commissioners upheld the zoning approval, allowing the project to move forward. Source: WHAS11
Opposition and litigation at this site
Yes. Organized local opposition to Jefferson Proving Ground Data Center in Madison, Jefferson County, Indiana is documented in the public record. A formal zoning appeal challenging the project was filed and denied (May 2026) after a ~5.5-hour hearing; opponents raised environmental concerns over proximity to the Big Oaks National Wildlife Refuge and local water/utility strain.
How the community has taken it
Reception is a sourced signal, not an editorial judgment: opposed means documented, organized local opposition is the dominant signal on record.
A formal zoning appeal challenging the project was filed and denied (May 2026) after a ~5.5-hour hearing; opponents raised environmental concerns over proximity to the Big Oaks National Wildlife Refuge and local water/utility strain.
Notes on the record
Proposed hyperscale campus of nine buildings totaling ~7.1 million sq ft on 549 acres of the former Jefferson Proving Ground airfield, on land owned by the Ford family (Daniel Ford); the end-user/operator has not been publicly disclosed. Reported to draw hundreds of megawatts and be roughly 78% larger than Meta's Lebanon campus; projected 300-450 permanent jobs and ~$60M in annual county tax revenue. Coordinates are an approximate geocode of the former proving-ground airfield north of Madison. CONFIRMED ABSENCE, re-checked 2026-09-10: no official capacity, utility partner, or anchor-company figure has been released for this site. Independent, unofficial estimates cited in the same article range widely, one expert (Chien) says 9 GW 'is not unreasonable' for a power-dense AI training facility, while another (Inskeep) is 'very confident' it will need at least 1 GW, but neither is a project-stated figure, so capacityMw is intentionally left unset rather than guessed. Site size (549 acres, former Jefferson Proving Grounds Army base, ~8 miles north of Madison, IN) matches the existing record.
What the record does not establish, and the document that would
In every fight on our tracker the decisive fact came out of a public records request. These are the requests for this site.
- Power capacity in megawatts
- Cooling method and water use
- Tax abatements or other public subsidy
- Permanent jobs promised
- Which utility serves it
Which document closes each gap
- Power capacity in megawatts
- The utility's large load service agreement, the interconnection request in the grid operator's queue, or the electrical site plan in the permit file.
- Cooling method and water use
- The water service agreement, any groundwater appropriation permit, and the mechanical narrative in the site plan.
- Tax abatements or other public subsidy
- The abatement, PILOT, or development agreement approved by the county, city, or development authority, and the state's data center sales tax exemption certificate if one was issued.
- Permanent jobs promised
- The economic development application or incentive agreement, which usually states a job commitment and a clawback.
- Which utility serves it
- The electric service agreement or the utility's filing with the state public utility commission.
Have one of these documents? Send it to us and we will add it to the record with attribution.
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.
- Carrollton Industrial Campus · Carrollton · PowerHouse Data Centers / Poe Companies16 mi · Proposed · Contested
- Project Lincoln: OC Data Center · La Grange · Western Hospitality Partners29 mi · Cancelled · 600 MW · Opposed
- QLEVR Charlestown Data Center · Charlestown · QLEVR LLC29 mi · Proposed · 3 MW · Contested
Questions people ask about this site
Is there opposition to the Jefferson Proving Ground Data Center in Madison?
Yes. Organized local opposition to Jefferson Proving Ground Data Center in Madison, Jefferson County, Indiana is documented in the public record. A formal zoning appeal challenging the project was filed and denied (May 2026) after a ~5.5-hour hearing; opponents raised environmental concerns over proximity to the Big Oaks National Wildlife Refuge and local water/utility strain.
Has anyone filed a lawsuit over the Jefferson Proving Ground Data Center?
The reception note on this record refers to a court proceeding. Read it in full under opposition and litigation above, and check the sources at the foot of the page for the filing itself.
How much water does Jefferson Proving Ground Data Center use?
No water withdrawal figure for Jefferson Proving Ground Data Center is on record here. Water use is rarely published voluntarily; it usually surfaces through a utility service agreement or a state withdrawal permit, both of which are public records. We leave the number blank rather than estimate one.
Who operates Jefferson Proving Ground Data Center, and how big is it?
Undisclosed is the operator on record. No capacity figure is on record for this site. The site is recorded at 549 acres.
How to cite this page
SueDataCenters.org Data Center Registry, "Jefferson Proving Ground Data Center," updated September 10, 2026, https://suedatacenters.org/data-centers/jefferson-proving-ground-data-center-jefferson-county-in.
Facility data from Compute Atlas (E. Kubiak), version 1.32.0 (September 7, 2026), licensed CC BY 4.0, record https://www.compute-atlas.com/facilities/jefferson-proving-ground-data-center-jefferson-county-in, retrieved September 14, 2026.
Corrections with a public source are welcome at the Compute Atlas record or through our contact page. The whole registry is available as CSV and JSON under CC BY 4.0.
Sources for this record
As compiled and cited by Compute Atlas, with our own reporting appended. Archived links are used where the original has moved.
- 1.Commissioners uphold decision to allow a data center on 550 acres at Jefferson Proving Grounds · WHAS11 · retrieved August 5, 2026
- 2.Zoning board allows controversial Madison data center project to move forward · WDRB · retrieved August 5, 2026
- 3.Proposed JPG data center could generate $60M taxes annually · The Madison Courier · retrieved August 5, 2026
- 4.Questions persist about who will power the massive data center near Madison, Indiana · WHAS11 · retrieved August 5, 2026
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