State clears proposed Stak Energy data center lease near Deadhorse

A proposed Stak Energy data center near Deadhorse cleared a major state hurdle, putting a 50-year lease for 715.4 acres on a faster track. The question for the North Slope is whether the project becomes real local work and investment, or stays mostly a remote industrial concept built around outside power demand.

The Alaska Department of Natural Resources issued its preliminary decision on May 12, 2026, for a negotiated state land lease on a parcel about 26 miles south of Deadhorse, adjacent to the Dalton Highway near Milepost 390. The site sits west of the Alaska Gasline Development Corporation right-of-way and the Trans-Alaska Pipeline System, in a corridor already defined by oilfield infrastructure and heavy logistics.

State filings describe the proposal as a commercial natural gas-powered energy facility with modular high-performance computing units. New documents add operations and maintenance buildings, fiber optic communications, supporting utilities and a new pipeline to supply gas. The campus could occupy roughly one square mile and require about 7.1 million cubic yards of gravel fill to rise over permafrost.

On paper, the numbers are huge. Reporting says the project could cost about $500 million and generate between 1 and 3 gigawatts of electricity, roughly enough to power about two million homes at the top end of that range. Alaska Beacon has reported that the campus could use more than twice as much natural gas as urban Alaska currently consumes for electrical generation and home and commercial heating, underscoring the scale of fuel demand behind the pitch.

Stak says the project would support artificial intelligence and cloud computing, including machine learning and scientific computing, and has argued that the North Slope climate could cut water use to about 90% below what a comparable Lower 48 data center would need. The company, which says it is based in Anchorage and has 120 years of Alaskan expertise, has also hired former state officials John Boyle and Jim Shine. Reporting has said financing for the project has not been disclosed, although Stak previously sought money from Anchorage firm McKinley Alaska Private Investment.

Opposition remains strong. Some Alaska Native critics view the project as another form of colonialism, and the Northern Alaska Environmental Center has said the application materials and preliminary decision remained unchanged even after the comment deadline was extended to July 17, 2026. For North Slope communities, the stakes are straightforward: a one-square-mile industrial campus near Prudhoe Bay could mean new contracts and construction work, but it could also mean more gas demand, more land disturbance and a much larger footprint in an already heavily industrial part of the Arctic.