Brookfield and NextEra Energy will develop a $100 billion, privately funded artificial intelligence data center campus on a former Cold War-era uranium enrichment site in Paducah, Kentucky, paired with up to 4.6 gigawatts of dedicated new power generation, the U.S. Department of Energy announced in a press release. The project is among the largest data center campuses tied to a former federal nuclear site, joining a similar effort RealtyWire has covered at a federal nuclear site in Aiken County, South Carolina.
Under the arrangement, Brookfield will lease land from the DOE and develop and operate the data center campus itself, while NextEra Energy will build and own the dedicated generation resources serving it β up to 2 gigawatts of natural gas-fired capacity and up to 2.6 gigawatts of battery energy storage. When fully built out by 2032, the campus is projected to support up to 1.8 gigawatts of utility capacity and more than 1.2 gigawatts of compute load.
DOE selected Brookfield to lease and develop the Paducah site following a Request for Offers issued in November 2025, and separately selected NextEra to build the dedicated generation. The site, a former uranium-enrichment facility tied to the nation’s Cold War-era atomic energy program, already has transmission capacity, water systems, fiber connectivity and road access in place β infrastructure the companies say will speed development relative to a greenfield site.
The companies structured the project to align with the Trump administration’s Ratepayer Protection Pledge, meaning the campus’s dedicated power infrastructure is intended to be paid for without passing costs on to existing residential or small-business electricity customers in the region. Big Rivers Electric Corporation will provide wholesale electric service to the project and Jackson Purchase Energy Cooperative will deliver retail service; both utilities’ executives were quoted supporting the arrangement’s structure. Big Rivers CEO Don Gulley said the project “will provide significant benefits to our members without compromising affordability or reliability.” Jackson Purchase CEO Greg Grissom said projects like this “bring meaningful economic development while safeguarding electricity our members depend on daily.”
U.S. Energy Secretary Chris Wright said the campus “helps secure our nation’s position as a global leader in innovation,” while DOE Assistant Secretary Tim Walsh framed the deal around federal land reuse, saying the department is “intently focused on finding ways to put federal land back to use for American taxpayers.” Brookfield CEO Bruce Flatt said demand for AI infrastructure “will need capital, development capabilities, and power generation benefiting communities,” and NextEra CEO John Ketchum called the project “a proof point for how AI infrastructure should be built in America.”
The development is expected to create approximately 8,000 construction jobs and 600 permanent operations positions. Power service agreements tied to the project still require approval from the Kentucky Public Service Commission before construction-related generation contracts can move forward.
What it means: The $100 billion figure and gigawatt capacity numbers come directly from the joint DOE/company announcement and represent committed investment plans rather than a completed transaction β the timeline runs to 2032, and Kentucky regulatory approval for the power agreements is still pending. The “no cost to ratepayers” framing is the companies’ and administration’s stated intent, not an independently verified outcome; whether the dedicated generation buildout in fact avoids raising costs for existing utility customers will depend on how the Public Service Commission structures the approved agreements.
What to watch: The Kentucky Public Service Commission’s review of the NextEra generation contracts, and whether Paducah becomes a template for redeveloping other former DOE nuclear and enrichment sites β following Aiken County, South Carolina β into AI data center campuses.
