UNDER THE RADAR: Feds Invite AI Data Centers To Build On Federal Lands At Three Alaska Bases

THE COPPER RIVER COUNTRY JOURNAL 

U.S. Govt Invites Tech Companies Onto Bases To Build Multiple Data Centers In Alaska 

There's  'Underutilized' Military Land At JBER, Eielson & Clear Space Force Station, Air & Space Forces Magazine Reports  

Site Visits Are Being Conducted Today, April 28th, 2026, With Alaska Data Center Proposals Due In A Month 

JBER Website 

Air & Space Forces Magazine reported on April 11th, 2026 that the Air Force has offered 4,700 acres of Alaskan land on three military bases across the state as the site of up to a dozen data centers. The bases are JBER, Eielson, and Clear. 

Successful developers will be responsible for "all aspects of the project, including financing, permitting, construction and long-term operation of the facilities," according to the U.S. government, promoting the blend of large tech corporations with the government. 

There is a drawback for the public. AI data centers can be very large and "span hundreds of acres and consume large amounts of electricity and water," according to the magazine. 

In Virginia, which has a large number of data centers, there has been a significant increase in the electricity bills of surrounding residents.

Two of the locations are near Alaska's most populous cities. Anchorage, which is adjacent to JBER, currently has a population of around 289,000 people. Fairbanks, which is adjacent to Eielson, has a city population of around 32,000 and a total borough population of around 97,000. 

But Anderson, on the Parks Highway north of Denali, is the smallest and poorest of the three. Anderson is next to Clear and has a population of only around 367 people. 

Anderson has been best known in the past few years because of its ongoing struggles with summer forest fires. In 2022, the Clear lightning fire burned 1,750 acres west of Anderson. In 2023, the Anderson Complex fire burned 58,000 acres. And in 2025, the Bear Creek and Saint George Creek fires burned 28,000 acres near Anderson, closing the Parks Highway.

Fire locations near Anderson in the 2023 fire season. (Map, Alaska Fire Information website)

The decision is apparently new. As of the morning of April 28th, it had not yet hit the news media in either Anchorage or Fairbanks. News of the project was limited to sources specializing in military and artificial intelligence. Mid-April 2026 stories about the plan are noted in the Air Force Military website, Air & Space Forces Magazine, Data Center Dynamics, and Space Force Mil. April 28th Google searches for news of the planned facilities had not yet hit the Anchorage Daily News, the Alaska Beacon, the Fairbanks Daily News-Miner or KTUU as the project officially kicked off. 

According to the Environmental and Energy Study Institute, writing in February, 2026, the power use of data centers can significantly increase costs of electricity in the following manner, across the United States, as artificial intelligence begins to take hold of every aspect of American life, culture, business, jobs and commerce. 

The institute reports: 

To cover the investments needed to accommodate the surge in interconnection requests, many utilities are passing on the costs to their consumers through higher monthly utility bills. Utilities requested more than $29 billion in rate increases in the first half of 2025, double the amount requested in the first half of 2024. Electric rate increases were expected to affect 40 million customers nationwide last year. This is in addition to the rate increases granted by state energy commissions over the previous couple of years.