Nebius Breaks Ground on 1.2 GW AI Factory Campus in Missouri

Nebius has started construction on a 1.2-gigawatt AI factory campus in Independence, Missouri, marking the company’s first gigawatt-scale digital infrastructure project in the United States.

The Amsterdam-based AI cloud infrastructure provider said the campus will span about 400 acres and support up to 1.2 gigawatts of computing capacity once fully built out. The company described the site as one of the largest AI infrastructure developments currently underway in the country. Construction partner ARCO National Construction recently held a groundbreaking ceremony for the first phase of the project.

According to Nebius, the project is expected to create about 1,200 construction jobs and 130 permanent operational positions. The company also projected about $650 million in tax payments to local school districts and taxing jurisdictions over 20 years.

Missouri Governor Mike Kehoe attended the groundbreaking event. “This investment from Nebius strengthens Missouri’s position as a national leader in digital infrastructure, while creating quality jobs, supporting local schools and businesses, and generating long-term opportunity,” Kehoe said in a company statement.

Nebius Board Chairman John Boynton said the project was designed as a long-term investment tied to the surrounding community. The company said it introduced measures intended to reduce water usage, limit noise and light impacts, and prevent additional utility costs for local residents.

The company also announced a community benefits plan that includes funding to eliminate school meal debt in the Independence and Ft. Osage school districts and workforce development programs with Metropolitan Community College.

AI Infrastructure Expansion Accelerates

The Missouri campus adds to a growing wave of large-scale AI infrastructure projects across the U.S. as cloud providers and model developers compete for GPU capacity, land, and electrical power.

The project reflects the broader rise of multi-gigawatt AI campuses being developed to support generative AI workloads and large language model training. Companies including Meta, OpenAI partners, CoreWeave, and hyperscale cloud operators have expanded long-term infrastructure investments over the past year.

Nebius recently signed a long-term AI infrastructure agreement with Meta worth up to $27 billion over five years beginning in 2027, according to the company’s announcement.

Reuters also reported that Nebius raised its annual capital expenditure forecast to between $20 billion and $25 billion as demand for AI compute infrastructure continues to grow:

The company said the Independence campus will connect to Independence Power and Light infrastructure while maintaining residential utility rate protections. Nebius also stated the facility will use closed-loop cooling systems designed to reduce water consumption.

The cooling and energy demands tied to AI infrastructure have become a major focus across the data center industry as operators deploy increasingly dense GPU clusters. That trend has increased demand for thermal management systems and liquid cooling demands from AI systems.

Nebius Expands U.S. AI Footprint

The Missouri project expands Nebius’ presence in the Kansas City region, where the company already operates AI infrastructure capacity through a converted industrial facility.

Nebius has also expanded beyond cloud infrastructure into AI software and inference systems. Earlier this month, the company announced plans to acquire Eigen AI for $643 million to strengthen its AI inference platform:

Investor interest in AI infrastructure providers has continued to rise as companies compete to secure long-term access to NVIDIA GPUs, networking equipment, and electrical power capacity. The broader market has also faced AI infrastructure supply bottlenecks tied to semiconductor manufacturing and data center expansion timelines.

Nebius said the first building in the Independence campus was designed to integrate with the surrounding community and support future expansion across the site.