Wisconsin's statewide economic development agency has signed nondisclosure agreements with at least five companies intending to construct artificial intelligence data centers, shielding the financial and operational details of those multibillion-dollar projects from public scrutiny.
Records show that the Wisconsin Economic Development Corp. — a state body operating with partial government ties — executed one of the nondisclosure agreements roughly 22 months before any public announcement of a proposed data center in Menomonie, and approximately six months before the city itself entered into a comparable agreement. Reports from a broadcast outlet indicate that no fewer than five municipalities entered into local nondisclosure agreements, leaving residents without access to information about proposed data center developments for periods spanning several months.
Documents released by the state agency under nondisclosure agreements indicate that certain proposals were withheld from public access for extended periods. Three of the confidentiality agreements the state agency executed cover development proposals in municipalities where no equivalent local confidentiality requirement existed.
Documents released under Wisconsin's open-records statute lay out the timeline between nondisclosure agreements filed by the Wisconsin Economic Development Corporation and subsequent public announcements of data center projects. Menomonie stands as one example: a confidentiality agreement executed in August 2023 with an entity registered as Balloonist LLC preceded the city's unveiling of a still-pending data center proposal by nearly two years. Roughly 19 months passed between the date Balloonist and other parties executed the confidentiality agreement covering the Beaver Dam facility — now under construction as a Meta data center — and the moment the project was disclosed to the public.
A confidentiality agreement with QTS Data Centers had been executed in February 2025 — eight months before the development proposal was put before the public, a plan that was ultimately withdrawn. The nondisclosure agreement between the village and Microsoft was executed in January 2023, two months before any public announcement about the data center development now taking shape on the site. Nondisclosure agreements tied to the OpenAI, Oracle, and Vantage data-center development in Port Washington were executed in July 2025, roughly six months after the municipality had publicly introduced the project proposal.
In a written response to an interview request, WEDC outlined its position on transparency, stating that the agency operates within Wisconsin's public records framework and has maintained a documented record of compliance with reporting obligations. The statement further noted that state law allows certain details tied to active economic development projects to be withheld when competitive sensitivities are at stake, and that nondisclosure agreements serve as a standard instrument for enabling businesses to share proprietary information as they weigh potential investments, expansions, or relocations within the state.
Upon learning that WEDC had been using nondisclosure agreements, state Rep. Clint Moses, a Republican from Menomonie, indicated he would extend a bill he intends to file in January — targeting NDA restrictions on data centers — to cover the agency as well, with the new governor and Legislature set to take office around that time. Moses acknowledged that WEDC would likely take issue with the legislation, adding that certain organizations tend to look unfavorably on any move toward restricting nondisclosure agreements — a concern he tied to his earlier proposal, which had been submitted in January targeting only local governments but never received a committee hearing.
Moses stated that the measure's popularity appears to hold regardless of which party controls the governorship or the Legislature, and expressed confidence that the proposal would secure backing regardless of opposition. WEDC, the body responsible for leading economic development efforts across the state, indicated it stood ready to play its part. Under the plan, tax credits, grants, loans, and the authority for local governments to issue bonds would all serve as tools for drawing fresh commercial investment into the state.
Under Wisconsin's 2011 statute establishing WEDC, agency records are generally accessible to the public, though the law carves out an exception for pending grants, loans, or development projects that the corporation itself judges too competitively sensitive to disclose. That provision allows proposed data center developments spanning hundreds of acres and carrying multibillion-dollar price tags to be evaluated internally before surrounding communities receive notice — a practice that a Port Washington alderperson described as questionable.
Beaster, who had filed public records requests over a planned data center in his area and went on to win an April election, noted that state agencies operate outside the reach of local government oversight. A news outlet separately submitted a request to the Wisconsin Economic Development Corporation for copies of all nondisclosure agreements tied to hyperscale data center proposals. When that public records request sought all nondisclosure agreements held by the agency, not every document on file was turned over.
Three data centers currently under construction — Microsoft's facility in Mount Pleasant, Meta's in Beaver Dam, and the OpenAI/Oracle/Vantage project in Port Washington — were among those for which the agency first handed over nondisclosure agreements tied to a state sales tax exemption certification. Both Mount Pleasant and Port Washington, in their responses to earlier public records requests, indicated that no nondisclosure agreements had been executed in connection with their respective data centers. A nondisclosure agreement was executed by the Beaver Dam Area Development Corp. — a quasi-governmental body — in connection with the proposed data center project in Beaver Dam.
That broadcaster subsequently submitted a public records request to obtain any nondisclosure agreements WEDC had entered into with the at least 16 companies identified as having put forward data center proposals within the state. In response, WEDC handed over the nondisclosure agreements tied to its Menomonie and DeForest operations. Across the nine regional economic development bodies operating under state authority, open-records requests returned no nondisclosure agreements tied to data center projects. Six of those regional bodies took the position that open-records statutes do not cover their operations; of those six, three — along with three additional bodies — indicated no such agreements were in place.
A data center buildout by Microsoft in Mount Pleasant — a Racine County community located south of Milwaukee — has been valued at $20 billion. A data-center development tied to OpenAI, Oracle, and Vantage, situated in Port Washington in Ozaukee County north of Milwaukee, carries a reported valuation of $15 billion. The Meta facility in Beaver Dam, located in Dodge County roughly 40 miles north of Madison, represents a $1 billion commitment toward data center infrastructure.
Suppliers and vendors across Wisconsin have collectively drawn considerable revenue from the expansion of data center infrastructure in the state. By early in the year, three Wisconsin-based firms had collectively surpassed $1 billion in data center contracts, according to news reports. The Metropolitan Milwaukee Association of Commerce noted in a statement that nondisclosure agreements form a standard part of operations in a competitive economic development environment, adding that companies weighing large-scale investments tend to assess multiple locations simultaneously rather than evaluating any single site in isolation. The association stated that benchmarking against other communities nationwide forms part of the process, with an expectation that proprietary business data and trade secrets submitted during those evaluations will be kept out of public view.
The association further stated that tightening the rules around data protection would place the industry at a disadvantage relative to its competitors and put the underlying investment at risk, with hiring levels, government revenue streams, and the overall pace of commerce all facing downward pressure as a result.
No state bars its economic development agency from using nondisclosure agreements, according to the association's statement. A tax provision tucked into the 2023-25 state budget provides that data centers holding WEDC certification — among them the three facilities currently under construction — are generally relieved of sales-tax obligations on building materials, computer servers, and related equipment. Projected at more than $2 billion by certain estimates, the exemption has attracted pressure from lawmakers on both sides of the aisle, with Democrats and Republicans each pushing for its revision or elimination.
A $1.6 billion data center project in Menomonie, a western Wisconsin community where land acquisition had already reached $25 million, was placed on hold in September 2025 following an increase in community objections. Work on the zoning rulebook at the municipal level remains unfinished. A municipal nondisclosure agreement followed in February 2024, arriving roughly six months after WEDC had put its own confidentiality arrangement in place.
A $12 billion data center investment at DeForest, a community outside Madison, had been part of QTS's development plans. A broad community benefits agreement between the municipality and QTS was negotiated and accepted, though local resistance ultimately led officials to set the plan aside — with the municipality noting it had not been party to any nondisclosure agreement. Documentation obtained through records requests placed village representatives in active negotiations with QTS at a point that overlapped with WEDC's execution of a nondisclosure agreement — a timeline that predated by several months the date on which those same village representatives first disclosed their knowledge of the project to residents.
Nondisclosure agreements tied to data center projects have drawn restrictions from at least two municipalities in Wisconsin. A vote by the Columbia County Board put in place a rule barring its own members from signing nondisclosure agreements tied to data center projects. A policy adopted by the Beloit Town Board now requires staff to obtain board authorisation before signing any such documents.
On the gubernatorial ballot, Democratic nominee David Crowley and Republican nominee Tom Tiffany have each gone on record in favour of prohibiting nondisclosure agreements tied to data centers. One proposal still awaiting a decision would redevelop a shuttered paper mill in Wisconsin Rapids — a community situated north of Madison — with the city council expected to cast its vote on the matter within weeks. Municipal authorities stated that no nondisclosure agreement had been executed on their part.
Residents in Kenosha have called on the city to hold off on data center development while officials weigh a proposal from Microsoft — a review complicated by a nondisclosure agreement the city entered into in May 2024. The technology firm brought that local nondisclosure agreement to an end in June 2026. Three months before that, Microsoft had publicly declared it would stop entering into nondisclosure agreements with local governments over data center projects and would move to dissolve any already in place, framing the decision as a step toward greater transparency. No reference to state-level nondisclosure agreements appeared in the published statement.
A Microsoft representative declined to address questions about state-level nondisclosure agreements. Maily Kocinski, who has been vocal in opposing the Beaver Dam data center, stated that the industry often speaks of wanting to be a good neighbor — a standard she argued the project falls short of meeting.
