Maricopa Data Center, Buckeye, Arizona

Fortescue, the Australian mining and energy company, is weighing a data center on 158 acres at the northwest corner of State Route 85 and Patterson Road in Buckeye, in Maricopa County, Arizona, land it bought to make hydrogen. In March 2026 the Buckeye City Council voted to lift the conditions that had limited the site to hydrogen production, clearing the way for other heavy industrial uses, including a possible data center. No capacity has been disclosed.

Nikola Corporation and its partner TC Energy bought the property in 2022 for a hydrogen plant to fuel Nikola's trucks, and Fortescue paid a reported $24 million for the project's assets in July 2023. Fortescue held a ceremonial groundbreaking in May 2024, but construction never began, and it called off the $550 million plant in the summer of 2025.

In an October letter to the city, Fortescue's Christy McDonough pointed to the federal tax and spending law signed in July 2025, which she said tightens and speeds the phase-out of the clean energy tax credits that had supported renewable hydrogen. The company told the city it "is currently assessing multiple development options for the property, including a potential data center and other industrial developments."

The applicant, Fortescue subsidiary Phoenix Hydrogen Hub LLC, has a site plan under review for an Arizona Public Service substation on the property, which city staff said would primarily serve an eventual data center campus. Fortescue's letter says a data center would draw water from on-site groundwater wells and treat wastewater on site rather than use city utilities.

Nobody came to the neighborhood meeting in December 2025, and when the staff report was written the city had received no public comment for or against. Cepand Alizadeh of the Arizona Technology Council told the council, "The signs of a good tech company are ones that know how to pivot and they know how to read the tea leaves."

Buckeye resident Sasha Diann Wootton started an online petition to halt approval of water-hungry data centers, which had fewer than 100 verified signatures. "We are on our own well and this could cause us thousands of dollars if we have to drill deeper and then no guarantee," one commenter wrote.

A data center is a conditional use in the site's heavy industrial zoning, so it would need a conditional use permit from the Buckeye Planning and Zoning Commission and site plan approval. Expanding onto the surrounding 920 acres would need a general plan amendment and further rezoning from the Buckeye City Council, which has not set a hearing date.