Swarm Systems Data Center, Marshfield, Missouri

Swarm Systems has paused its plan for a data center in the industrial park in Marshfield, in Webster County, Missouri. "We're going to take a beat," company official Amir Atefi told the Springfield Business Journal in May 2026, calling it "not an active project" and promising that "If we choose to reengage, we will have a public forum first before we get to any city submittals." The company had been looking at an 8.2-acre portion of a larger parcel at 630 George St., and its website showed renderings of a Missouri campus promising 20 megawatts, "ready for service in mid-2027," until the images and text were removed on May 18. A January email to the city described a building of about 60,000 square feet, up to 39.5 feet tall, with standby generators and a largest shift of about 15 employees.

City administrator Sam Rost said no formal plans were submitted, and that Swarm had first asked about hooking into city facilities at an unincorporated site: "That was pretty well basically a no." On April 23 the Marshfield Board of Aldermen passed a measure requiring a conditional use permit for data centers inside the city limits, which Rost said came out of those first conversations. "Until we have something set in stone, this is just another inquiry," Rost said.

Marshfield had already had its first data center fight. On May 11, 2026 hundreds of people filled the high school auditorium over a different project, a five acre facility on Rifle Range Road north of the town being built by Lumon Solutions, where site preparation had begun with no public announcement. Dale Fraker, an associate commissioner for Webster County, explained the limits of what the county could do: "Because there's not a lot of county oversight here with planning and zoning or anything like that. What folks in Webster County do with their personal property is their business." Christine Vande Griend left unconvinced: "Those answers did not put me at ease. In fact, I think it probably raised more questions than answers." Seth Atkison's worry was heat: energy that is used, he said, cannot be destroyed or created, so it has to be put somewhere. That developer said it would draw only a few gallons a day from a 500 foot well through a closed loop, and afterwards declined to comment further.

If Swarm returns to the George Street site, it will need that conditional use permit from the city of Marshfield.