A little over two years ago, Vantage Data Centers embarked on a site selection journey in the Greater Reno-Sparks-Tahoe metro region. For the company, exploration of this brand-new market required the expertise of Dallas-based tax services firm Ryan, which drew attention to the benefits driving data center development in northern Nevada.
At any given time, there are over 10 data center prospects in and around the region. In the past year, 11 data center investments — including projects from Microsoft, Google, Apple, EdgeCore, Centra Digital, Novva and Tract — moved forward. In Cushman & Wakefield’s latest Global Data Center Market Comparison report, Reno was ranked as the No. 5 emerging data center market, finishing behind No. 4 Abu Dhabi and ahead of Dubai.
Northern Nevada’s strategic location, low-cost utilities, moderate climate, availability of large-scale sites, low latency and skilled workforce are enticing, yet its tax incentives have proved to have a sterling grip on data center developers coming to the state.
Vantage’s New Stor(e)y Begins
In July, Denver-based Vantage Data Centers revealed its first Nevada data center would be located just outside of Reno in Storey County.
Economic Development Authority of Western Nevada (EDAWN) Senior Vice President of Business Development Heather Wessling Grosz worked with Ryan Site Selection and Business Incentives Principal Michael Falleroni and Vantage’s team through the entire site selection process.
“They’ve been great to work with,” says Grosz. “The scope of the project is pretty incredible.”
The consulting firm worked with EDAWN on previous data center projects in the region and had served top companies landing in the world’s largest industrial park, the Tahoe Reno Industrial (TRI) Center in Storey County. The 107,000-acre site located nine miles east of Reno, adjacent to I-80, sets itself apart by guaranteeing all building permits for major projects within 30 days of plan submittal.
“Vantage’s site selection process is guided by a combination of strategic, operational and community-focused criteria,” says Vantage Data Centers Senior Manager of Public Policy and Community Engagement Brittany Mazin. “We evaluated factors such as customer demand, access to power — including renewable energy, proximity to fiber infrastructure, financial incentives, scalability and regional workforce potential.”
Vantage moved to file a tax abatement application with the state in March 2024, returning eight months later with increased investment plans and another application. The company secured a 2%, 10-year sales tax abatement and a 75%, 10-year personal property tax abatement from the Nevada Governor’s Office of Economic Development, totaling over $19.2 million in the next decade.
When asked to score site selection factors critical to the potential project, Vantage gave its highest scores to utility infrastructure; utility costs; state and local tax infrastructure; state and local incentives; and business permitting and regulatory structure. According to Grosz, each of these factors — in conjunction with the state’s swift technical expertise and proximity to top markets in Silicon Valley and Los Angeles — sealed the deal.
“That strong reputation of TRI Center and Storey County, paired with the fast response time of the county for large projects like this, made them double down and invest in us again,” she says.
Construction has already begun on the future $3 billion, 224-megawatt hyperscale data center campus. The 137-acre site will consist of four planned multi-story data centers, spanning over 1 million sq. ft. upon completion. A closed-loop chiller system will allow for Vantage’s Water Utilization Efficiency to reach near zero at the campus, but the site will have the flexibility to handle air-cooled compute loads or liquid cooling for GPU loads. NV Energy plans to provide power to the site, which will also house a private 500 MW on-site substation. Vantage’s first data center is expected to come online in 2026.
Regional Expertise Attracts Innovation
A $1 billion research and manufacturing facility will be built in Mesa del Sol, New Mexico, by two-year-old commercial fusion company Pacific Fusion. It will become the Pacific Fusion’s first location outside of its home state, California.
“Our Albuquerque campus will build on New Mexico’s legacy in applied physics, including decades of foundational research at Sandia National Laboratories,” stated the company’s release. “The state’s expertise in advanced energy technologies, workforce that aligns with our future hiring needs and capital-efficient environment for large projects make it a natural choice for Pacific Fusion’s strategic expansion.”
The company was founded with a goal of navigating affordable fusion energy. In Northern California, the team began designing and building its own pulsed magnetic fusion systems, building upon concepts demonstrated at U.S. National Laboratories in California and New Mexico. This model sends stored electrical energy (simultaneously or staggered) through modules and pulse tubes into a fusion chamber, allowing hydrogen atoms to fuse and release energy, in the end reducing costs to manufacture and maintain the system.
The new campus will house Pacific Fusion’s Demonstration System, which will help the company achieve net facility gain, essentially putting more fusion energy out than all energy stored in the system. The company’s official release notes that this facility is designed to deliver “100-fold higher facility gain at 10-fold lower cost” than it would find at the National Ignition Facility at the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory in California.
An additional benefit comes with close proximity to its long-time research partner Sandia National Laboratories. Decades of scientific and engineering advances derived from research at the laboratory’s Z facility created the ideal ecosystem for Pacific Fusion to pursue its Demonstration System and take on a portfolio expansion.
Facility construction is set to begin next year, while manufacturing operations are expected to take place before the end of 2025. Pacific Fusion will create 200 new jobs in New Mexico, its greatest expansion to date. Since 2024, the company has tripled its California operations to over 110 employees across its Fremont HQ and Test Center, the 135,000-sq.-ft. San Leandro Build Center and the Livermore Collaboratory. This investment is another step forward toward the company’s goal of constructing the first commercial fusion system in the nation by the mid-2030s.
