Nebius Commences Construction of Gigawatt-Scale AI Factory in Missouri

Nebius (NASDAQ: NBIS) officially broke ground on its flagship AI factory campus today. The project represents the company’s first gigawatt-scale digital infrastructure development in the United States.

The multi-building campus is being constructed on approximately 400 acres in eastern Independence. According to company projections, the investment will have the following economic effects:

Construction Employment: The project is expected to create roughly 1,200 construction jobs, which will be overwhelmingly drawn from local union building trades.

Permanent Workforce: Once fully operational, the facility will support 130 permanent high-tech positions.

Tax Revenue: Nebius expects to generate $650 million in tax payments to local school districts and taxing jurisdictions over the next 20 years.

Local Education Funding: The Independence School District is projected to receive more than $463 million of the total tax revenue, providing long-term financial stability for the district.

Construction of the first phase is currently underway. The facility is designed as a full-stack platform to support AI developers and companies in tasks ranging from data preparation to model training and production deployment.

NVIDIA is participating in the launch, with Ned Finkle, NVIDIA Vice President of External Affairs, stating that the campus will strengthen American supply chains and build the factories necessary for the next era of computing.

Nebius has implemented several design measures intended to mitigate the local impact of the facility:

Minimizing operational water use.

Containing noise and light emissions.

Ensuring protections for local utility ratepayers.

The company has also established a community benefits plan focused on education. Initial actions include a donation to eliminate school meal debt in the Independence and Ft. Osage School Districts and a workforce development partnership with Metropolitan Community College to promote AI literacy.