Quantica LLC Big Sky Campus data center, Broadview, Montana

Quantica Infrastructure began construction in September 2026 on its data center campus on a nearly 8-square-mile property outside the town of Broadview, in Yellowstone County, Montana. Quantica Infrastructure is planning a 5,000 acre campus it calls Big Sky Digital Infrastructure, starting at 500 megawatts of renewable power and battery storage and expandable to a gigawatt, with construction expected to begin in 2026. In July 2025 NorthWestern Energy announced a letter of intent to supply up to 1,000 megawatts to the project.

NorthWestern supplies about 760 megawatts on an average day and peaks at around 1,300. The utility says folding the data center into its regulated business will "improve cost efficiency by spreading the fixed costs of operating Montana-based energy infrastructure across a broader customer base". Anne Hedges, who runs the Montana Environmental Information Center, does not accept that: "We have what we need. Adding [new data centers] to the system should cost them, not us." Alana Lake, executive director of the Montana Public Service Commission, said: "New data center loads of this size represent a significant change to NorthWestern's energy service obligation." NorthWestern's chief financial officer Crystal Lail had argued in a March 2025 letter that the commission has no legal authority to require approval for a large new customer, citing House Bill 25 and the Reintegration Act; the commission says it is watching closely but has opened no docket.

Quantica's founders are Damon Obie, a Montanan, and John Chesser, with Charlie Baker as chief financial officer. The company describes hundreds of miles of new fibre-ready underground conduit and diverse routes to major metropolitan areas. No tenant is named in its announcement, which describes the campus as serving AI, hyperscale and data center operators generally.

NorthWestern was at the same time negotiating with TAC Data Centers for 600 megawatts near Great Falls and Atlas Power for 150 megawatts in Butte, the Butte project expected to be running within the year. Postcards mailed to residents said the company began staging equipment in early September 2026, with access roads and a well first and drilling possibly “as early as the end of September.” Opponents have crowded into county commission meetings to boo commissioners and demand action, but Yellowstone County Attorney Scott Twito advised against the interim zoning Missoula County adopted in July, saying any county move to stop the project would trigger a lawsuit and possibly hefty fines. Quantica plans to draw water from the deep Madison Aquifer, 1,300 feet below the Eagle Aquifer that Broadview homes use, and expects to need up to 150,000 gallons a day during construction and 20,000 a day once operating. Retired Montana Tech professor Jon Reiten said the deep well should not affect shallower wells if done properly, but warned the water is salty and its treatment waste costly to dispose of: “if they just dump it on the ground up there, it's not going to be good.”

Quantica signed a June 2026 agreement to use local union labor where possible, but the building trades council said job numbers and wages will not be known until Quantica secures an end user to buy the facility.