Two top executives from an out-of-state data center company made matching financial contributions to nine state political candidates in Montana the year before announcing plans to build in Yellowstone County.
As Texas-based Quantica Infrastructure pushes ahead with plans to construct one of the world’s largest data centers near the town of Broadview, campaign finance records show a spate of identical giving in 2024 from the company’s CEO and general counsel.
Several of the recipients who ultimately won their reelection campaigns for statewide office said they were unaware of the relatively modest donations until contacted by Montana Free Press. Nonetheless, the 2025 legislative session resulted in two wins for the data center developer: a tax break and beefed-up legal protections. One of the bills was sponsored and both were signed into law by elected officials who had received the donations.
Following those changes to state law, Quantica announced plans to build a nearly 8-square-mile project about 30 miles northwest of Billings, which it’s calling the Big Sky Digital Infrastructure.
The plan has generated heated opposition in Yellowstone County, with more than 14,000 voters this summer signing a ballot initiative that would have required voter approval before new data center projects could begin or existing data centers could continue operating. The initiative failed after a mistake in calculating the deadline for gathering signatures, but proponents could attempt the process again with a special election in the spring.
Local data center skeptics aren’t alone in their sentiments. Nationally, spending on political ads about data centers has spiked since July, with messaging mostly negative, linking political opponents to data centers, according to AdImpact, a national firm that analyzes trends in political advertising.
The campaign donation amounts that the Quantica CEO and lawyer made in Montana in 2024 are all within the legal limits and constitute only a fraction of the total money in the campaigns’ coffers.
What stands out is the identical batch of donations: both executives’ contributions are the same in candidate, amount and date. The donations were made over four days in October of 2024.
For instance, both men gave $1,120 to Gov. Greg Gianforte twice in 2024 — once for the primary election and once for the general election, as allowed by state law. The limit for donations to a gubernatorial candidate is $1,190.
In 2025, Gianforte named one of the donors, Quantica CEO John Chesser, as one of the 20 members of his new Unleashing American-Made Energy Task Force.
Around the same time, the governor signed a memorandum of understanding with Mitsubishi Heavy Industries to advance the company’s potential investments in data centers and energy infrastructure, “particularly in southern Montana,” the governor’s press release said. What role, if any, the Japanese engineering company will have in the Quantica project has not been made public, despite speculation online.
In response to Yellowstone County residents’ concerns about data centers, the governor’s communications director, Kaitlin Timken, said Gianforte is looking for ways to boost the supply of affordable, reliable energy while protecting Montana ratepayers. In June, he announced he was requesting the state intervene in the NorthWestern Energy Large New Load Tariff case that the Public Service Commission is reviewing. He said it would “help ensure Montana families and small businesses are protected as the state competes for new investment and jobs from large power users, such as data centers,” Timken wrote.
Timken also noted in an email to MTFP that any data center projects must first acquire the necessary permits from the Department of Environmental Quality. It’s a common talking point for conservatives, including Rep. Katie Zolnikov, R-Billings, who was interviewed for this story: The environmental protections already baked into Montana law are sufficient. Liberals tend to be more skeptical. Zolnikov was one of the recipients of the Quantica employees’ campaign donations.
Timken added that Gianforte has pledged to ensure developers bear all of their own costs.
“As data centers choose to invest in Montana, the governor has been clear: they need to listen to local communities and pay for the full cost of any energy or infrastructure, so those costs are not passed onto Montana ratepayers,” Timken wrote.
In another example of Chesser’s and General Counsel Damon Obie’s matching donations, both contributed $250 to the same six legislative candidates: Rep. Jonathan Karlen, D-Missoula; Sen. Derek Harvey, D-Butte; Sen. Wylie Galt, R-Martinsdale; Rep. Katie Zolnikov, R-Billings; Rep Steve Gist, R-Great Falls; Rep. Marty Malone, R-Park County, who was not re-elected; and retired state representative and current federal judge Bill Mercer, who was then a Republican from Billings.
The maximum allowed for those races is $470.
All legislators reached for this story said they didn’t remember receiving the donation. Except for Mercer, they all served on committees such as Natural Resources or Energy, Technology & Federal Relations in the state Legislature, which would typically hear bills related to data center development. Mercer sat on the Appropriations Committee.
Karlen, the Missoula Democrat, said in a call with MTFP that he has never spoken with Chesser or Obie, and that it’s not uncommon to receive donations from people you don’t know.
He also said he was “deeply concerned about data centers,” particularly about the large amount of power they consume. He also said he needed to learn more about the issue and what actions other states are taking.
“I also recognize that you know, in the world we live in, AI computing is here to stay,“ Karlen said.
Chesser and Obie both also gave $500 to Montana Attorney General Austin Knudsen’s campaign. His communications office did not respond to a request for comment.
The donations from the Quantica executives show a precise pattern of giving that stands out against an otherwise blank backdrop. Chesser has no other giving history among Montana political candidates. Obie, a Montana native, has only three other donations to candidates seeking statewide office in the early 2000s. Obie lived in Billings at the time.
TAX BREAK AND BEEFED-UP LEGAL PROTECTIONS
Zolnikov sponsored House Bill 424 in the 2025 Montana Legislature, which extended a reduced property tax rate to power plants built specifically to feed data centers. Data centers themselves are already eligible for a reduced tax rate following a change enacted by a previous Legislature.
Zolnikov said she was motivated to carry the bill to prepare for increased data center activity in Montana.
“OK, if this is coming in the future, if there’s going to be this development in Montana, then it does make sense to incentivize companies to bring their energy with them so we’re not supplying data centers on the backs of the ratepayers,” she told MTFP.
Zolnikov’s husband, Sen. Daniel Zolnikov, R-Billings, carried the other major legislative win for data centers in 2025: the Right to Compute Act. Often described as the first of its kind in the U.S., the law says that any government action that hampers the freedom to own and use software, algorithms and other technologies must be narrowly tailored to protect the public and that the government can’t enact those restrictions if there are “less restrictive means” available.
DONATIONS TO COUNTY CANDIDATES
While the data center developers gave money only to state-level candidates, a political group affiliated with the federation of labor unions slated to build the data center donated to both state and county candidates.
The Western States Regional Council of Carpenters Legislative Improvement Committee gave $470 this year to both Yellowstone County Commissioner Chris White and county commission candidate in Butte-Silver Bow, Ready Frost, who lost his June primary. The amount is the maximum permitted for county races.
White said that, due to an ongoing lawsuit involving the county, ballot initiative petitioners and Quantica Infrastructure, he couldn’t comment on the merits of the center planned for Broadview or on the plan for local unions to provide the labor, which was solidified in a memorandum of understanding between the builders and Quantica that they announced in June.
“I do, however, support the efforts of organized labor and the building trades to promote skilled trade careers, apprenticeships, workforce development, and technical education opportunities in our communities,” White wrote in an email to MTFP. “I believe those opportunities are valuable to Montana workers and our local economies. That general support for the trades should not be interpreted as a position on the Broadview data center or any other specific project.”
White is facing his first election this fall. He was appointed in 2025 to fill a board vacancy.
‘PERSONAL CONTRIBUTIONS,’ ‘PERSONAL RESOURCES’
Commissioner of Political Practices Chris Gallus said that identical donations from two high-level company members did not appear to violate any campaign finance laws.
“That sort of a pattern wouldn’t necessarily be a concern to me, I don’t think,” he said.
What’s illegal, Gallus clarified, is for a company to reimburse or provide a cash advance to employees in order for them to make certain political donations. That would violate the state’s ban on corporations donating to candidates.
Quantica spokesperson Travis Hall, who served as a top communications advisor to Gianforte until this February, wrote in an email to MTFP that the donations were “personal contributions made with personal funds. The company does not direct, require, or reimburse employees’ individual political giving. Employees are free to support candidates of their choosing.”
Hall did not answer how Chesser and Obie chose which Montana candidates to support. He said the two declined to grant an interview but sent a statement that he said was attributable to both men.
“Like other business owners and job creators in Montana, we’ve made personal contributions, using our personal resources and without reimbursement, to support Republican and Democratic candidates who have a record of supporting an environment in Montana where businesses can grow and create good-paying jobs,” the statement said.
Brendan Glavin, director of insights at OpenSecrets, a research firm that tracks political spending, had a different take. He said it’s true that many candidates don’t review their contributors’ names, but those donations could still be used later as leverage to get an audience with the elected official.
“Somebody’s going to look that up for them and say, ‘Oh, these people, you know, these people gave us money. They’re donors,” Glavin said.
“Even these smaller donations, you know, given repeatedly over time, you establish a relationship with the politicians, and in the future that’s going to provide you access, a seat at the table when decisions are being made,” he said.
Glavin added that representatives from artificial intelligence, cryptocurrency, data centers and other tech industries are starting to make direct political donations, as Chesser and Obie did. In the past, he said, it was more common to donate to a political action committee or a political party and let them choose how to spend the money.
“And I think now what you’re going to see with the data centers, because it’s blowing up so much, now they’re forced to get involved and defend themselves and participate in the political arena,” Glavin said. “Because, you know, [there’s been] a lot of citizen blowback on data center issues. And if they don’t get involved in this right now, then it could end up affecting their bottom line.”
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