In California’s Sacramento River Valley, a lush agricultural region known for producing rice and alfalfa, one tribal group is taking steps to claim a piece of the global AI boom.
In California’s Sacramento River Valley, a lush agricultural region known for producing rice and alfalfa, one tribal group is taking steps to claim a piece of the global AI boom. Colusa Indian Energy, a power company wholly owned by the Colusa Indian Community, is set to announce Tuesday that it’s partnering with developer Strata Expanse to build an AI infrastructure project on land belonging to the Cachil Dehe Band of Wintun Indians.
The tribe has agreed to lease several acres of land to start, with plans for that to top 100 acres in the next 18 months, said Kenneth Ahmann, chief operating officer of Colusa Indian Energy. The initial site will serve as a place for customers to test chips, cooling systems and networking tools before committing to larger projects. Eventually, Ahmann said, Colusa Indian Energy hopes to support a sprawling data center campus in the region. The deal marks a rare AI partnership involving a tribal group, with the promise of helping the community diversify its economy. The agreement will lead to more jobs and utility sales in the area, Ahmann said, as well as “a revenue share on the data center side.”AI schism grips Washington as tech, labor vie for upper handOver the past three-plus years, the relentless demand for computing power to support AI software has sparked a land grab across the country for data centers. Developers have pushed for more and larger facilities in rural communities, deserts and downtowns, sparking growing community pushback over concerns about straining power grids and the supply of water, among other issues. The backlash has spread to tribal groups as well, with some moving to ban construction of data centers on their land, citing a similar set of concerns. The Trump administration, meanwhile, has encouraged tribal communities to consider the financial benefits from opening up their territory to data centers as the government pushes to compete with China on AI. “Partnering with a data center developer holds tremendous opportunity right now — from land leases to selling power to the data center through a power purchase agreement to infrastructure developments and job expansion,” the US Department of Energy’s Office of Indian Energy Policy and Programs wrote in January. In a presentation, the agency cited Colusa Indian Energy as a prime example of how such partnerships could work. Among other selling points, the independent firm says it offers on-site power generation to help speed up the process of getting data centers online. “A lot of developers, energy developers, will come into Indian country because they view it as an opportunity to be able to build something fast and dirty right where you can’t build elsewhere,” Ahmann said. For the community, the hope is that embracing the AI build-out will spur more job creation. Locals may eventually be trained for jobs ranging from operating a data center to managing AI workloads, said Denise Muyco, chief executive officer of Ravel, a technology firm involved in the initiative. Historically, though, data centers tend to create far fewer long-term job opportunities than traditional tech campuses. “It’s really a core part of our mission here not just to create revenues,” Ahmann said, “but to create long-lasting, well-paying career jobs for tribal members at Colusa and more broadly across the rest of Indian country.”This Sacramento suburb is booming. Here's what you don't want to missNo Kings may have broken national record, but Bay Area numbers appear to lag from earlier protests Swalwell accuses President Donald Trump, Kash Patel of trying to influence California governor's raceDUI arrest for teen in fatal San Jose collision Environmental group signs deal to buy Golden Gate Fields horse track with plans to create huge new East Bay waterfront park Environmental group signs deal to buy Golden Gate Fields horse track with plans to create huge new East Bay waterfront park
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