Dakota County, Minnesota

County ranked by announced AI data-center load

Undisclosed Announced AI load

Campuses

Lead operator

Key takeaways

Dakota County is 442,204 people with a $105,212 median household income, the highest of any county in this batch. 44.6% of adults 25 and older hold a bachelor's degree, making it the most-educated Meta site outside of the Bay Area.Source: Census ACS 2023 B01003, B19013, B15003 (FIPS 27037)
Meta's 715,000 sqft Rosemount build sits on the former UMore Park parcel, land the University of Minnesota acquired from the WWII-era Gopher Ordnance Works in 1947. Rosemount itself is 25,650 residents.Source: data/sites/data_centers.csv (Rosemount) + sources[0] (Wikipedia: Rosemount, MN)
Xcel Energy's Minnesota residential rate rose from 15.3 to 17.0 cents per kWh between 2021 and 2023, an 11.2% jump worth about $184 per year on a typical 10,800 kWh household. Xcel's 1.23 million Minnesota residential customers are absorbing that on top of the new Rosemount load.Source: data/cache/utility_rate_yoy.csv (Northern States Power Co - Minnesota, MN)
Property tax assessments rose 10.0% over three years against a $362,100 median home value, the only Twin Cities suburban county in this batch and the only one where home prices have stayed under +5% while taxes ran into double digits.Source: data/cache/property_tax_yoy.csv + data/cache/realestate_yoy.csv (FIPS 27037)

Only 5.6% of Dakota County residents live below the federal poverty line and unemployment is 3.6%, both the lowest values in this batch. The Meta Rosemount campus is landing in a county that already runs a tight labor market before the construction phase ramps.Source: Census ACS 2023 B17001, B23025 (FIPS 27037)
10.8% of Dakota County workers are in manufacturing, the third-highest share in this batch. Flint Hills Resources operates the Pine Bend refinery and CHS owns the regional supply chain, so Meta is competing for skilled trades against established industrial employers.Source: Census ACS 2023 C24050 (FIPS 27037)
93.8% of Dakota County households have a wired broadband subscription, the highest in this batch. The Meta site is being built into a metro that already lives online, which changes who actually benefits from the new fiber Meta funds.Source: Census ACS 2023 B28002 (FIPS 27037)
Dakota County is 7.3% Black, 8.4% Hispanic, 5.2% Asian, and 76.0% white. The Asian share is twice that of any North Dakota AI county and reflects the Twin Cities Hmong, Somali, and Lao communities concentrated north of Rosemount.Source: Census ACS 2023 B02001, B03003 (FIPS 27037)