The project has obtained approval from the county and Gov. Spencer Cox, but it must still obtain environmental and building permits. Construction is expected to take years, with no firm timeline in sight. Its path from concept to approval, however, was remarkably short. O’Leary met with Cox in January, where they seemingly discussed plans for the sprawling data center. Cox and Sen. Stuart Adams (R-UT) “rolled out the red carpet,” O’Leary said in a Facebook post on January 9th. “They’re really gonna accelerate policy in terms of getting permits.”

In March, O’Leary’s investment firm announced plans to build the center in partnership with real-estate developer West GenCo. As reported by The Salt Lake Tribune, the 62-square-mile campus mainly sits atop private property. But it also overlaps with Department of Defense land, including the Utah Test and Training Range, which sits under the control of the Military Installation Development Authority (MIDA). MIDA would get around $49 million in annual property taxes, The Salt Lake Tribune reports. Some of these funds would go toward updating Utah’s Hill Air Force Base and supporting state infrastructure and emergency services, according to the Box Elder County Commission.

Data centers have become a political flashpoint around the country. They put an enormous demand on the power grid, raising local electricity prices. They can also strain water supplies, with the largest centers using up to 5 million gallons per day. Their backup generators can produce air pollution and a constant humming noise. And the wave of new jobs promised by developers could be illusory.

The Utah campus will have an on-site power plant that’s supposed to keep it off the state’s electricity grid, according to an FAQ on Cox’s website. The plant will draw methane (often dubbed “natural gas”) from the Ruby Pipeline, which runs from Wyoming to Oregon. The nonprofit Utah Clean Energy estimates that the Stratos Project could consume 448 billion cubic feet of gas per year, about 1.5 times the amount used by the homes, businesses, and power plants in the state. Companies like Pacific Gas & Electric, Cascade Natural Gas, and Nevada Gold Mines use the Ruby Pipeline, which is currently at about 50 percent utilization, according to Rextag. It’s not clear what kind of impact the Stratos Project will have on the supply of gas or pricing.