Upwards of $15.1 Million Made Off $64.4 Million of Burgum’s Own Personal Wealth, as His Interior Department Weighs at least 35 Data Center Applications Covering More Than 24,000 Acres of Public Land
HELENA, MT – Interior Secretary Doug Burgum made millions last year and has tens of millions of dollars of his personal wealth riding on the speculative data center and artificial intelligence boom he is pushing onto America’s public lands, according to a Save Our Parks review of his 2026 financial disclosure reported on by ProPublica. Burgum, Trump’s troubled Interior Secretary, made as much as $15.1 million on his stakes in AI-reliant software companies and data center operators, which total as much as $64.4 million. Save Our Parks’ new research report details Burgum’s deep ties and investments in AI and data center development since his confirmation.
The findings come as Burgum’s Bureau of Land Management, headed by Trump appointee Steve Pearce, weighs at least 35 data center-related applications covering more than 24,000 acres of public land across Arizona, Idaho, Nevada, Oregon, Utah, and Wyoming, according to a tracker released by the Center for Western Priorities. That is roughly triple the number of proposals previously reported.
Burgum’s 2025 disclosure lists stakes in 51 software companies held through his own venture capital firm, Arthur Ventures. A Save Our Parks review found that 45 of those 51 companies advertise a reliance on AI technology or sell a major AI service. Burgum also reported between $1 million and $5 million each in Microsoft, which runs 300 data centers worldwide and is pouring money into more to meet AI demand, and in Atlassian, which relies on Amazon data centers to host its customers’ data.
Those investments have paid off handsomely. In the year before joining Interior, Burgum reported as much as $11 million in capital gains from his software, AI, and data center-related investments, more than 68 times the $161,401 salary he drew as Governor of North Dakota over the same period. Burgum’s new financial disclosure, obtained by ProPublica, shows he took home upwards of $15.1 million in capital gains, 93 times his salary as governor, from his software, AI, and data center-related investments while overseeing the Interior Department.
“Data Center Doug Burgum isn’t just a cheerleader for the data center gold rush, he’s a major investor in it and he’s cashing in,” said Jayson O’Neill, Save Our Parks spokesperson. “Burgum’s made upwards of $15.1 million and still has tens of millions of dollars of his own money tied up in the AI and data center industry. Burgum spends most of his time as Interior Secretary wining and dining data center billionaires, while his cronies line up America’s public lands for their projects. Americans deserve to know whether the man in charge of our parks and public lands is managing them for the public or for his own personal investment portfolio.”
Highlights from Burgum’s AI and data center investment portfolio
Atlassian: Burgum has as much as $5 million invested in the software and AI company that relies on Amazon data centers to host its and its customers’ data.
Microsoft: Up to $5 million invested in the tech giant with over 300 data centers. The company is planning to build more.
Threatlocker: Some $5 million in a cybersecurity company that markets tools to help customers deploy AI agents at scale.
phData: Burgum made upwards of $1 million in capital gains from a company that calls itself “the leading AI and data services company.”
PureSpectrum: Burgum has at least $1 million invested in a company touting an “the industry’s first and leading AI-powered respondent-level scoring system.”
DNSFilter: At least $1 million invested in a company selling “AI-powered content and threat filtering.”
CFI Education: At least $500,000 in a company that sells AI for financial analysis and workflow automation.
Cyberqp.ai: At least $50,000 invested in cyberqp.ai, which calls itself “the complete AI-native PAM platform.”
Meeting with the money behind the data center boom
As his own money made him millions on AI and data center speculation, Burgum spent his first year in office meeting privately with a who’s who of data center investors, according to a previously released Save Our Parks report drawn from his limited publicly-available calendars. Among them: Amazon CEO Andy Jassy, whose company requested the meeting to discuss “technologies to support data center growth,” Alphabet chief investment officer Ruth Porat, Citadel’s Ken Griffin, TWG Global’s Thomas Tull, and David Sacks, who co-authored the administration’s plan to fast-track data center permitting.
At least one of those meetings overlapped with Burgum’s own business dealings. He met with David Fialkow, co-founder of General Catalyst, a firm that recently co-led a $30 million investment in data center energy technology and that has previously invested alongside Burgum’s Arthur Ventures.
Public lands on the table
Burgum has dismissed concerns about data center water and land use, and other impacts as “red herrings” and promised an oil industry crowd that AI could “cure cancer.” Under his watch, the BLM approved the first-ever data center on federal public land, an 86-acre facility near Boulder City, Nevada, without an environmental review. The project was halted on appeal in September and sent back to square one for a proper review. Burgum’s National Park Service is also weighing a land swap that would clear the way for four 100-foot-tall data centers along the edge of Virginia’s Prince William Forest Park.
Just last week, Democratic Senators sent a letter critical of Burgum’s “complete lack of transparency” and demanding he “immediately cease all efforts to hijack public lands for the development of data centers.” Burgum has until November 16th to provide a written response to the request. On September 24, Representatives Jared Huffman, Dina Titus, and 13 other members of Congress sent Burgum 18 questions about his plans for data centers on public lands, asking for answers by October 8th. It is unclear if Burgum responded. Trump’s controversial Interior Secretary was one of only three cabinet members who had yet to release their 2026 financial disclosure statements until now, exposing how much his personal wealth grew from his investments in software, data center-related development and AI.
“Congress should never stop asking Doug Burgum what he’s planning for our public lands, but now they must also ask what he personally stands to gain and investigate what conflicts he’s hiding,” O’Neill continued. “Burgum needs to come clean about every dollar he has invested in speculative software, AI, and data center corporations, and he should step aside from any decision that puts public land in the hands of an industry that has made him rich.”
Additional background
Burgum celebrated a $105 million gift to Yellowstone from Tallgrass, a Blackstone portfolio company building a 1,150-megawatt gas-fired power hub for AI data centers near Cheyenne, Wyoming.
Burgum’s Interior Department directed state BLM offices to compile lists and maps of public lands available for data center development.
Public opposition to exploiting public lands and using them for data centers and AI development is broad. More than 90 percent of likely Wyoming voters in a July poll said data centers are not an acceptable use of public lands, and the share of Americans who see data centers as mostly bad for the environment rose to 54 percent in September.
Burgum now holds wide-ranging authority under the Defense Production Act that could be used to approve data center development without public notice or environmental review.
Data Center Doug Burgum’s meetings report is available here.
Data Center Doug Burgum’s AI software and Data Center investment and earnings report is available here.
To speak with Save Our Parks spokesperson Jayson O’Neill, email jayson@focalpointstrategygroup.com.
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