Limited information is publicly available regarding an agreement announced Wednesday between Quantica Infrastructure, a development firm that hopes to build a 5,000-acre data center campus near Broadview, and the Southeastern Montana Building and Construction Trades Council, a regional federation of unions.
According to the release, the developer and the trades council signed a memorandum of understanding that “establishes a cooperative framework focused on union-backed workforce development, apprenticeship and training pathways and project stability for the Big Sky Campus, which is planned to include a large-scale data center campus and new energy infrastructure.”
Trades Council President Clint McCulloch declined to share the MOU with Montana Free Press during a Wednesday interview.
McCulloch said the agreement guarantees that “skilled and trained workers” would construct the facility, which still has to jump a number of hurdles before it can break ground. McCulloch declined to provide details about how many jobs construction would create or how many of those jobs would be unionized.
Plans for the data center facility include 12 to 16 buildings of about 200,000 to 300,000 square feet each. The entire campus would encompass about 7.8 square miles. Quantica estimates its near-term power requirements at 1,100 megawatts. But in a press release, the company has indicated that number could eventually reach 7,000 megawatts.
The facility is planned for a site just outside Broadview, a town of about 140 people, about 30 miles north of Billings.
Travis Hall, a former adviser to Gov. Greg Gianforte, distributed the release on behalf of Quantica. Hall declined a request to speak with Montana Free Press, instead providing a comment via email.
“This is a big win for Montana workers, especially those [the Building and Construction Trades Council] represents,” Hall wrote.
The Montana Environmental Information Center, an environmental nonprofit, has raised concerns about the environmental and community impacts of data center development. MEIC Executive Director Anne Hedges told MTFP Wednesday that she isn’t surprised by the dearth of available information.
“All you hear from these guys is PR, just like this press release today. It’s feel-good,” Hedges said. “But the rubber hits the road when they put things on paper and we can hold them accountable for those things.”
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Hedges said she has unanswered questions about the prospect of utility rate increases, power consumption, water usage, light pollution, ambient noise, traffic congestion and other community impacts associated with the proposed data center.
Hedges said she hopes to find a middle ground with unions, like the Southeastern Montana Building and Construction Trades Council, that are supporting data center developments.
“Every data center should be a union outfit. Absolutely,” Hedges said. “But the bottom line is we have to make sure the people of the state and the people of the area aren’t forced to suffer with the consequences of bad decisions and harmful impacts. And that’s what really needs to be tested.”
Hedges said she also believes Quantica is trying to exploit schisms between unions that have backed data centers and data center opponents within the Montana Democratic Party, which will have its state convention in Billings this weekend.
Jason Small, executive secretary of the Montana AFL-CIO, told MTFP Wednesday that his organization does not have an official stance on data centers, though some affiliate unions have signaled their support. Small, a former Republican state legislator, said the state Democratic Party plans to discuss data centers at this weekend’s convention.
This story was updated June 18, 2026, with additional information about the facility’s near- and long-term power needs.
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