Nebius, a Dutch AI company, wants to build a 2.5 million square foot data center on 400 acres in Independence, Missouri.
The project is tightly coupled to a privately owned power plant already approved by the city, signaling a vertically integrated energy strategy for AI workloads.
A data center of this size implies a large GPU footprint and significant continuous power draw, making the private plant a critical dependency rather than a nice-to-have.
Local scrutiny will likely focus on grid impact, reliability, noise, water use, and who bears long-term infrastructure and environmental risk.
For AI infra planners, this is another example of hyperscale AI builds moving toward self-contained power to sidestep grid constraints and permitting delays.
The city’s dedicated project page and public Q&A show how community engagement is becoming part of the playbook for large AI data center deployments.
Worth a read if you track how AI operators are pairing data centers with bespoke power in secondary US metros.
Source: Dutch AI company to host Q&A about proposed Independence data center
