Data centers in Bernalillo County, New Mexico: 3 projects mapped

Imagery: Esri, Maxar

Bernalillo County's three tracked data centers are older, smaller buildings in Albuquerque. The county's bigger fights are elsewhere in New Mexico, at Meta's campus in Los Lunas, Project Jupiter in Santa Teresa and Project Zenith in Roswell, but Bernalillo has written its own rules before a large project arrives here. In January 2026 Commissioner Eric Olivas brought a resolution requiring any data center seeking county tax incentives, industrial revenue bonds or other public money to meet new conditions; projects paid for entirely with private money are not covered. "Data centers are popping up all around the county," Olivas said. "It is only fair that these companies be required to provide a real benefit to our community to locate here in our home."

Developers said an early draft, requiring a 90% in-state workforce and full water offsets, would "close Bernalillo County for business." Commissioners deferred it in January, then adopted a revised version in February. It requires a data center to pay all permanent staff at least 120% of the area median salary, fully offset its water use, file a water reuse plan, and run on a private renewable microgrid or grid power bought under the Energy Transition Act. "We cannot ask our community to subsidize costs for multi-million-dollar companies," Olivas said.

Pressure has since moved to a specific site. In July 2026 a resident started a Change.org petition against possible data center development on a vacant parcel at 10401 Pocono Road SE near Kirtland Air Force Base, asking the city and county to reject it and adopt a moratorium; it had passed 1,000 signatures. Albuquerque Rep. Eleanor Chavez is among the Democratic lawmakers planning a bill for the 2027 legislative session that would pause new large-scale data centers while the state works out how to judge their water use, power demand and effect on bills.

Every project above is drawn from public records, filings and local reporting. Each row links to what it is based on. Statuses change, so check the source date before you rely on one. Found something wrong? Write to [email protected] and it gets fixed.