The Department of Energy is repurposing the Paducah Gaseous Diffusion Plant, a Cold War-era uranium enrichment site, into a cutting-edge AI data center hub. This facility in western Kentucky, which enriched uranium for over 60 years before closing in 2013, will now support advanced computing operations with GPU clusters expected to be online by late 2027.
The DOE’s Office of Environmental Management issued a request for offers back in November 2025, aiming to attract private developers who will fund and build the AI infrastructure themselves while leveraging the government-owned land and existing utilities. A key asset at Paducah is the 30-million-gallon-per-day water pump, originally designed for industrial-scale cooling, now primed to support high-demand data center cooling systems.
Paducah is among four federal sites chosen for AI infrastructure projects, including locations at Idaho National Laboratory and Oak Ridge in Tennessee. The initiative aligns with recent federal AI strategies encouraging smarter investments in national computing capabilities. Groundbreaking for at least one data center project is planned for June 2026, with full operational status targeted by the end of 2027.
Investors and technology sectors are watching closely as this transition could impact regional energy demands and data center supply chains. Meanwhile, the market showed a mild uptick in tech stocks following the announcement, reflecting cautious optimism about federal AI infrastructure investments.
