Stak Energy Data Center, North Slope Borough, Alaska

Stak Energy, an Alaska start-up, wants to build an AI data center on about a square mile of state land just off the Dalton Highway, some 25 miles south of the oil hub of Deadhorse on Alaska's North Slope. There are no towns or villages within 50 miles of the site except Deadhorse, whose population is oil workers living in camps. A new pipeline would bring North Slope natural gas to a power plant on site, and the project could ultimately produce up to three gigawatts for its own use.

The lease covers a 715-acre plot. Of that, 640 acres would become a gravel pad, built up about 5 feet above the permafrost with an estimated 7 million cubic yards of gravel, according to Native Movement. Stak Energy was founded by Sparrow Mahoney, a graduate of Wasilla High School, the Anchorage Daily News reported. Mahoney previously worked in cryptocurrency, according to Alaska Public Media. The company recently hired John Boyle, Alaska's natural resources commissioner from 2023 to 2025, as chief strategy officer, and Jim Shine, a former state Department of Natural Resources official. State documents put the cost at $500 million; Boyle later said it would be more than $10 billion. Its power plant could use more than twice as much natural gas as urban Alaska uses for electricity and heating combined, the Anchorage Daily News reported. Stak says the North Slope's cold climate, with an average annual temperature of 12 degrees Fahrenheit, would let it cut water use by 90 percent or more compared with data centers elsewhere. The state estimates the project would employ 1,500 workers at peak construction and about 60 people permanently.

The Alaska Department of Natural Resources' Division of Oil and Gas took public comment on Stak's lease application, extending the deadline to July 17, 2026. More than 500 comments came in, and fewer than a dozen supported the project, agency spokesperson Sean Clifton said. The Northern Alaska Environmental Center, the Alaska Public Interest Research Group and the Alaska chapter of Backcountry Hunters and Anglers all filed formal opposition. One commenter wrote simply, "No," adding, "You may build one in Canada though." Another wrote that the site's remoteness "pretty well leaves NIMBY out of the equation." Stak's chief strategy officer, John Boyle, said the vast majority of the comments were "form letters lacking substance other than reflecting an individual's point of view."

Native Movement, a nonprofit with offices in Fairbanks and Anchorage that works on the unceded lands of the lower Tanana Dene and Dena'ina peoples, organized against the project. The group said the gravel pad would use roughly double the material regulators authorized for ConocoPhillips' Willow oil project, and warned of harm to permafrost, caribou migration and more than 200 species of migratory birds. "Alaska lands are not disposable and they are certainly not for sale," the group said. Native Movement also disputed the jobs figure, saying the roughly 60 permanent positions were unlikely to benefit local communities. "We have no clue what the long term impacts of such a project would be in this region, from permafrost melt, to caribou migration impacts, to water contamination," the group said.

The department issued its preliminary decision to lease the land on May 12, 2026; that is not final approval, and no final decision on the lease had been reported by September.