Data centers in Madison County, Illinois: 1 project mapped

Imagery: Esri, Maxar

Madison County, in the Metro East across the Mississippi from St. Louis, has been courted by one developer, Cloverleaf Infrastructure, for three data centers at once. County Board Chairman Chris Slusser said in January 2026 the developer wanted "three, and it's kind of an all-or-nothing deal." Troy and Granite City were two of the three communities publicly discussed; emails later showed Cloverleaf had also been talking to Edwardsville. After a December 2025 tour of Google's Papillion, Nebraska campus, Slusser said he went from "80-90% in favor" to "100% in favor."

Troy pushed back hardest. Cloverleaf presented a 500-megawatt site near I-55, and hundreds of people packed Triad High School for the developer's meeting in February 2026. "We're not an industrial town. We're a small rural town. There is nowhere you can put this here that it won't impact somebody," said Derrick Ramert of Troy Residents for Responsible Growth. The city passed a six-month moratorium in March; by June its draft rules would ban hyperscale campuses outright, capping any data center at 30 megawatts with 1,000-foot setbacks from homes and schools and a decommissioning bond worth 150 percent of construction cost.

Elsewhere the talks were quieter than officials let on. In February, Edwardsville told residents it had received "no formal proposal," but emails obtained by the Illinois Answers Project showed city and county officials had discussed land surveys and site selection with Cloverleaf for almost a year. Granite City's plan commission postponed a zoning change that would allow data centers; Mayor Mike Parkinson said, "We want to hold them accountable for air and water quality issues." Godfrey passed a six-month moratorium in January 2026, and Collinsville's planning commission a one-year moratorium at the end of 2025.

Every project above is drawn from public records, filings and local reporting. Each row links to what it is based on. Statuses change, so check the source date before you rely on one. Found something wrong? Write to [email protected] and it gets fixed.