REPORT: Data Center Doug Burgum’s Yearlong String of Meetings With Data Center Investors, Just as His Agencies Start Handing Over Public Lands for Development

Save Our Parks Report Documents Burgum’s Interior Department Prioritizing Data Centers on Public Lands and a Dozen Previously Unreported Meetings Between Secretary Burgum and the Billionaires Bankrolling the AI Bubble

HELENA, MT – A new report released today by Save Our Parks documents how Interior Secretary Doug Burgum spent much of his first year in office quietly meeting with a who’s-who of the private equity and venture capital world behind the data center boom, right as Burgum’s agencies began compiling public lands available to hand over for data center development. Breaking reporting by the Washington Sun just uncovered at least 12 data centers and data center-related infrastructure projects covering some 17,600 acres to be built on federal public lands

“Doug Burgum is taking meetings with the billionaires and venture capitalists cashing in on the data center development craze, all while his agencies are quietly handing over America’s public lands for new data centers that the American people do not want,” said Save Our Parks spokesperson Jayson O’Neill. “Data center projects are already driving up electricity bills and gobbling up private lands. Now Burgum wants to plant them on America’s public lands to enrich the tech and energy CEO’s he's been quietly wining and dining behind closed doors.”

A Dozen Unreported Meetings: Publicly released calendar and visitor-log records analyzed in the report reveal at least a dozen previously unreported sit-downs between Burgum and data center investors and advocates, including Amazon CEO Andy Jassy, Alphabet chief investment officer Ruth Porat, Citadel’s Ken Griffin, Elliott’s Paul Singer, TWG Global’s Thomas Tull, and David Sacks, the venture capitalist who authored the administration’s AI Action Plan.

Doug’s Data Center Directive: Sometime during Burgum’s private data center development push, Interior Department leadership transmitted a data center directive to state BLM directors to compile lists and maps of public lands ripe for data center development, which is now in his and his leadership team's hands.

Public Land Data Center Budget Prioritization: Burgum’s proposed FY 2027 budget spends millions of tax dollars on Artificial Intelligence (AI) and his Bureau of Land Management (BLM) realty and ownership management budget narrative will “focus on highest priorities,” and lists “data centers to advance artificial intelligence.” Several other Interior agencies are prioritizing AI integration.

Land Giveaways Already Underway: As Burgum took these meetings, his Bureau of Land Management approved the first-ever data center on federal public land, an 86-acre facility near Nevada’s Lake Mead National Recreation Area. His National Park Service is separately weighing a land swap that would clear the way for four 100-foot data centers along the edge of Virginia’s Prince William Forest Park.

Overlap With Burgum’s Own Portfolio: One venture capitalist Burgum met with, General Catalyst co-founder David Fialkow, has previously co-invested alongside Burgum’s own venture firm, Arthur Ventures, which itself holds stakes in AI-dependent software companies, according to Burgum’s ethics filings.

Sat on the Records: Interior leadership sat on Burgum’s meeting records for a year and a half before a partial release that offers scant details beyond the names of the data center power brokers he met with, even as Burgum has publicly brushed aside concerns about the costs and impacts of data center development.

Taken together with the land moves underway, the meetings paint a picture of a secretary treating Americans’ public lands as inventory on the balance sheet for the very technology sector in which he holds a personal stake.

“Congress must immediately get to the bottom of what Doug Burgum promised these investors in exchange for development access to our public lands,” O’Neill continued.

Recently, Nevada Representative Dina Titus introduced legislation that would require any data center development proposals on public lands to undergo environmental reviews and public participation. However, as noted in the report, Burgum now has broad authority under the Defense Production Act to authorize development for data centers without public notice, participation, or environmental reviews. The dearth of information and lack of transparency by Burgum could mean new data centers and related infrastructure could be approved while impacted communities, neighbors, and the public are left in the dark. 

The full Data Center Doug Burgum report is available here.

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