The Legislature smartly declined to throw money at data centers and instead approved some mild regulations concerning data centers’ electricity and water usage and a small bill allowing (not requiring) the Public Utilities Commission to charge data centers for reviewing their contracts.
Data center company Applied Digital whined all winter about the Legislature’s efforts to regulate their lucrative business. Having failed to secure the corporate welfare they expected for their proposed data center in Deuel County, Applied Digital tells South Dakota to piss off:
“Applied Digital would welcome the opportunity to bring to communities in South Dakota the same long-term economic investment and community partnership reflected in our North Dakota projects in Ellendale and Harwood, supported by a competitive policy environment that enables our customers to operate effectively,” a statement from Applied Digital… said. “We continue to monitor opportunities where the right conditions exist for long-term investment. At this time, our proposed project in Toronto, SD, is unlikely to go forward” [Michael Doorn, “Deuel County Data Center ‘Unlikely to Go Forward’,” KELO-TV, 2026.03.13].
Competitive policy environment… right conditions for long-term investment… evidently Applied Digital can’t compete if they have to pay for their own power, pay sales tax, and use only their fair share of the local water supply. Yet somehow every other business in South Dakota manages to compete under those conditions.
My sister-in- law is originally from Toronto. She married by brother in 1960 at First Lutheran Sioux Falls, with the best minister of all time. I was seven and I thought she looked just like Iris West and my brother looked like Barry Allen. Their still doing fine in Oskloosa, Iowa. Larry drove us to the best Ribs I’ve ever had in a neighboring village just last year.
You know, why should anyone believe one word that a data center representative says? Good riddance.