Butte Data Center, Butte, Montana

Sabey Data Centers has backed out of its plan for a data center at the Montana Connections business park in Butte, Silver Bow County, Montana. Silicon producer REC Silicon used a right of first refusal to buy part of the land in April 2026, ending Sabey's agreement to buy about 600 acres at German Gulch Road and Rick Jones Way.

The plan called for two buildings of 500,000 square feet each, under an option to buy the city-county had agreed to in April 2025. "This could be upwards of over $1 billion of investment into our community," said J.P. Gallagher, the Butte-Silver Bow chief executive. NorthWestern Energy had cleared Sabey to use 50 megawatts, with eventual expansion to 250.

"250 megawatts is approximately one-third of what Northwestern Energy is serving all of its Montana customers currently," said Ben Catton of the Montana Environmental Information Center, which wants state regulators to put data centers in their own rate class so households do not subsidize them. Sabey said it would use under 30 million gallons of water a year from Silver Lake, not connected to Butte's drinking water; community organizer Sarah Borduin wanted that written into a contract.

Gallagher told the Montana State Exponent after the sale that Sabey was still looking at sites in southwest Montana, including Silver Bow and Deer Lodge counties.