QTS Eagle Mountain data center, Eagle Mountain, Utah

QTS Data Centers is building a 193-acre data center campus in Eagle Mountain, Utah County, Utah, and placed the last beam on its first three buildings in April 2026, with about 2,000 construction workers on the site. The three buildings, of between 579,000 and 592,000 square feet each, have been under construction since the fall of 2025 by Layton Construction and are set to be finished later in 2026, not far from Meta's existing Eagle Mountain data center.

QTS, a Virginia-based company, has committed $6 billion to the campus and estimates 100 permanent jobs once it is complete, counting its own staff, tenants and contractors. The nearly 200-acre campus is expected to be completed by 2029, and city officials say any future expansion phases will undergo additional review. "This QTS campus represents major investments in Eagle Mountain," Mayor Jared Gray said at the topping out.

Water is the question in a region grappling with drought. QTS says the buildings will use a closed-loop cooling system that is filled once and then uses no more water for cooling, with city water going mainly to bathrooms, kitchens, irrigation and humidification. "It's great that we're seeing less water use at the data center itself," said Hilary Hungerford, an earth sciences professor at Utah Valley University. "But we have to follow it upstream and ask what water use looks like in terms of power generation." A nearby data center built in 2018 does not have to disclose its water use, and Utah's 2026 law requiring large data centers to report water consumption, House Bill 76, applies only to facilities that start operating after July 2026. "It's a start," said the bill's sponsor, State Representative Jill Koford. "It wasn't everything we wanted, but it's where we needed to begin to get the bill passed."

The data centers also came up in a fight over the city's own taxes. When the Eagle Mountain City Council passed a 183 percent property tax increase on August 6, 2026, hundreds of residents turned out, and many voiced frustration over tax breaks given to data centers. Resident Alex Washburn joined State Sen. Emily Buss to organize a referendum against it. On August 18 the council repealed the increase and adopted a smaller one of 69.81 percent, the city's first property tax rise since 2010, to pay for a Utah County Sheriff's Office contract. "It affects all of us. Everybody's taxes are going to be going up," Washburn said.

City officials say the campus is subject to local development agreements and state regulations, and the Eagle Mountain City Council is the local body residents take their concerns to; water reporting rules are set by the Utah Legislature.