Nixxy-Tachyon 9 Data Center, Williams County, North Dakota

Nixxy, the company behind the proposed Nakota data center campus about 5 miles west of Williston in Williams County, North Dakota, ended its merger agreement with developer Tachyon 9 on July 30, 2026. Nixxy said it will instead buy the site directly and pay for the permits the project still needs. The campus is planned to reach up to 1 gigawatt of power, but no permit application has been filed yet, and the Williams County Commission would have to approve one before construction could start.

Williams County has more data center activity than anywhere else in North Dakota, with ten projects tracked and nine still in the pipeline, according to a Valley News Live count from August 2026. Nearby, the Atlas Power data center has become a cautionary example: its power draw strained the local grid and pushed up energy costs, and noise complaints led to a lawsuit, the North Dakota Monitor reported.

Public Service Commission chair Randy Christmann said he "cringed" when he learned about that facility because the region already had grid congestion. At least four western North Dakota counties have placed temporary bans on data center projects, though some have since lifted them.

As first proposed, the Nakota campus would cover about 620 acres and generate its own electricity rather than draw from the grid, using turbines that can burn hydrogen along with natural gas that would otherwise be flared. Cooling would use a closed-loop liquid system that needs only an initial fill of water rather than continuous fresh water. The first 120 to 150 megawatts were targeted for the second quarter of 2027, "subject to financing, regulatory approvals and completion of the proposed transaction."

Nixxy, formerly known as Recruiter.com Group, moved into AI infrastructure in 2024. Under the original deal, Tachyon 9 was to contribute about $64 million in equipment and land rights, and had lined up Nidar Infrastructure, parent of India's Yotta Data Services, as the anchor customer for the first 100 megawatts, a deal it valued around $2.34 billion. Nixxy's SEC filing said it ended the Tachyon 9 agreement "to pursue other potential business opportunities" and paid no penalty, and that it is negotiating to acquire the full project itself.

North Dakota requires no state environmental review for data centers; developers need only a conditional use permit from local government, here the Williams County Commission. The county has approved permits for other data center projects and expects developers to work with nearby residents. "There should not be a lot of discontent. If you make your neighbors happy in this process, then it should be a good project," Commissioner Beau Anderson said in 2025, approving a different project. Nixxy has not yet filed a conditional use permit application for the Nakota site.