Diode Ventures Gemstone Technology Park (Kuna) data center, Kuna, Idaho

Sherry Agnew has lived beside this land in Kuna, in Ada County, Idaho, for 25 years, and what worries her about the data center is her electricity bill. "I'm just worried being a senior citizen, I don't want my power rates to go up," she said, describing the scale of what is planned as mind-boggling.

Diode Ventures is developing the Gemstone Technology Park on 620 acres of farmland in southeast Kuna, and the city approved the rezoning in 2025. The company had not broken ground on any infrastructure or buildings when that report was published.

The legislature took up the rate question. Idaho House Bill 756 would require customers needing 20 megawatts or more, Gemstone among them, to pay for their own infrastructure so the cost does not fall on other ratepayers.

The developer's own project page says it will take on all of the cost of the grid interconnection upgrades, and that Idaho Power has run a feasibility study on the power needed. It gives no megawatt figure at all.

On water, the company says the land's historical groundwater irrigation rights are being converted to industrial use, which cuts the maximum allowable usage by 33 percent, so the total volume falls while the diversion rate stays the same. Cooling water would be treated to Idaho Department of Environmental Quality standards, and the site would not use the city of Kuna's utilities.

The company puts the investment at more than $1 billion, with 800 to 1,200 construction jobs at peak and more than 100 permanent ones. It offers $30 million to the Kuna Rural Fire District over 13 years, $10 million to Kuna Police over 20, and $500,000 to the school district for athletics and technology. It promises phased development, setbacks, berms, landscaped screening, dark sky compatible lighting and noise dampening enclosures around the generators.