Edwards AFB Data Center, Edwards, California

The Air Force is offering land at Edwards Air Force Base, in Kern County, California, to private companies for AI data centers, under a request for lease proposals it posted on October 15, 2025. Edwards holds most of the roughly 3,100 acres on offer at five bases: Defense News put the Edwards share at more than 2,100 acres, and Defense One reported 2,115 acres across seven sites there. The Air Force set a proposal deadline of November 14, 2025, and said it would announce a selection or selections in January 2026; that month has long passed and no result has been published.

To qualify, a project must add more than 100 megawatts of new power load and be worth at least $500 million, and leases can run up to 50 years. Developers must bring their own power and water, submit a plan to protect local utilities, pay fair market value plus $250,000 to the government, and show they have built three AI data centers of more than 100 megawatts within the last three years. Robert Moriarty, the Air Force's deputy assistant secretary for installations, said: "AI is transforming the modern world, and these data centers are crucial for America to remain at the forefront of innovation."

Edwards is where the Air Force tests aircraft such as the B-21 Raider bomber, and that worries some analysts. Stacie Pettyjohn of the Center for a New American Security said: "If you're letting a lot of people on the base, there is a lot of room for potential espionage, let alone sabotage or things like that." She added the deal "is potentially ceding land that the U.S. government will actually never get control over again," and an Air Force spokesperson said the service will "ensure the proper security precautions are taken to protect the installation and its assets."