Stak Energy Plans $500M AI Data Center on Alaska’s North Slope

Stak Energy, an Alaska-based startup, has filed for state approval to build a $500 million AI data center on the North Slope, covering more than a square mile of tundra off the Dalton Highway and targeting up to 3 gigawatts of power drawn entirely from natural gas that currently sits stranded beneath Arctic oil fields. On May 12, the Alaska Department of Natural Resources issued a preliminary finding that the project is in the state’s “best interest,” opening a public comment period through June 15 before any land lease can proceed.

The pitch rests on geography: every friction point strangling AI data center buildouts in the Lower 48, from spiking electricity prices to water shortages and community opposition, largely disappears at 70 degrees north latitude. Whether Stak can translate that geographic logic into a funded, turbine-equipped, customer-signed facility by 2028, its stated target for first operations, is the question it has yet to answer publicly.

Project Aaka and the Square-Mile Scope

Stak calls the development Project Aaka, named for the Iñupiaq word for “grandmother.” At full build-out it would place multiple buildings across approximately one square mile of land some 25 miles south of the North Slope’s major Prudhoe Bay infrastructure, connected to petroleum fields by a newly constructed natural gas pipeline. State documents show the power plant feeding those buildings could consume more than twice the natural gas that all of urban Alaska burns annually for electricity generation and combined home and commercial heating.

At a maximum of 3 gigawatts, the project would sit in the same general tier as the largest AI campuses currently under development in the Lower 48. Meta’s Hyperion campus in Louisiana is targeting 7.46 gigawatts; Microsoft and Chevron are building a five-gigawatt gas plant in West Texas; Google is partnering with Crusoe Energy on a 933-megawatt facility in North Texas. Stak’s ceiling is more modest, but its fully off-grid, self-powering design is structurally different from all of them.

Stak officials declined to respond to specific questions about the proposal. The company’s prepared statement called the lease filing “an important milestone for anchoring Alaska as America’s at-scale energy solution” and described the company as committed to “responsible development” of Alaska’s economy. No anchor tenants or committed investors are named in any public document filed with the state.

Three Reasons Alaska Beats Virginia

Northern Virginia holds most of the world’s existing data center capacity, but the region’s grid is straining under the load, its water tables are under pressure, and community opposition to new campuses grows louder at planning meetings across the state. Stak’s geographic argument comes down to three physical advantages that no warmer-latitude market can replicate:

• Stranded natural gas with no competing demand. North Slope oil fields hold large reserves of associated gas that petroleum companies have historically left in place because no pipeline connects them to buyers. Stak would face virtually no price competition for that supply, at least at project launch.
• Arctic air cooling. With an average annual temperature of 12°F, the campus would use outside air to cool its servers rather than relying on water towers. The lease application says that approach cuts water consumption by 90% or more compared with industry norms, removing a key source of local opposition that has plagued data center projects elsewhere.
• Complete grid independence. The facility would not connect to Alaska’s main power grid, creating no new load for Anchorage or Fairbanks ratepayers. Data centers in Virginia, Texas, and Oregon have faced backlash precisely for driving up household electricity bills.

Antony Scott, a former commercial petroleum analyst for the Alaska Department of Natural Resources, told Northern Journal that the off-grid structure clears a significant political obstacle. “The issue of data centers and the effect on normal humanity’s electricity bills is causing real angst,” Scott said. On the North Slope, he added, “we avoid all of that. You can just step into this friendly environment.”

The Company and Its Politically Connected Hires

Sparrow Mahoney, Stak Energy’s founder and chief executive, grew up in Alaska and attended Wasilla High School. She launched the company roughly a year ago with a far narrower goal: convert stranded North Slope gas into electricity and use it to mine Bitcoin. Prior involvement in the Iditarod’s push into cryptocurrency was part of her startup background, according to Alaska Public Media. The pivot to large-scale AI and cloud computing has transformed both the company’s pitch and the scale of capital it now needs to raise.

Alaska is the only place this makes sense, long term, for the industry.

Mahoney said this at the May 2026 Alaska Sustainable Energy Conference, where she cited U.S. Department of Energy figures showing the country needs 100 gigawatts of new data center capacity by 2030. To staff up for that ambition, Stak made a series of politically connected hires. John Boyle, who served as natural resources commissioner under Governor Mike Dunleavy, joined the company, as did Jim Shine, a former special assistant at the same department.

Both bring familiarity with the land-use and permitting process the project must work through, including a federal Clean Water Act authorization to build a gravel pad that documents indicate would be nearly twice the size of the one at ConocoPhillips Alaska’s Willow oil field. Fundraising is running through McKinley Alaska Private Investment, an Anchorage-based firm. How far along Stak is toward its $500 million target is not public. Stak Energy’s project materials describe the venture as building “the secure, scalable energy foundation for American dominance,” a framing that fits the current federal energy policy environment comfortably.

The AI Power Crunch That Sent Stak North

Stak’s proposal didn’t arrive in a vacuum. Across the United States, AI training and inference workloads are consuming electricity fast enough to strain every major data center market simultaneously. Former U.S. Senator Kyrsten Sinema of Arizona, now co-chair of the AI Infrastructure Coalition, put it plainly at a May 2026 energy conference: “The number one bottleneck that we face is energy.”

• 6.7% to 12%: the share of all U.S. electricity that data centers could consume by 2028, per a U.S. Department of Energy projection cited in Mitsubishi Power’s sector outlook
• 40%: share of AI data centers projected to face electricity deficits by 2027, per Gartner
• 5 to 7 years: current lead times for new combined-cycle gas turbines, per S&P Global

That turbine shortage affects every natural-gas data center build in the country, not just Stak. GE Vernova, Siemens Energy, and Mitsubishi Heavy Industries collectively supply most of the world’s new gas turbines, and all three are reporting delivery schedules stretching well past 2029. Some manufacturers have reportedly stopped accepting new orders without committing to delivery timelines. U.S. data centers are expected to add between 3 and 6 billion cubic feet per day of new natural-gas demand by 2030, meaning competition for both fuel and turbines will intensify before it eases.

The Gaps the Lease Papers Don’t Fill

No Gas Supply Deal on File

The lease application the Alaska DNR reviewed was thorough on engineering concepts, but contained a material gap: at the time Stak filed it, the company had not struck a firm supply agreement with any petroleum operator on the North Slope. The proposed pipeline connecting the campus to a gas source could run anywhere from 25 to 90 miles, a range that implies Stak has not settled on a specific field or a specific seller.

Antony Scott told Northern Journal that the range gives the situation away. “That means they don’t have a gas supply,” he said. North Slope operators are presumed willing to sell associated gas they currently cannot monetize, but presumed willingness is not a signed contract with price and volume terms. A binding supply agreement is the project’s most pressing next milestone.

Turbine Timing vs. a 2028 Start

Stak says it wants initial operations running by 2028. That target runs directly into the gas turbine shortage. S&P Global’s analysis of the U.S. gas turbine supply crunch puts current lead times at as long as seven years, and some manufacturers have effectively closed order books until 2028 without committing to delivery dates. Getting into a manufacturer’s queue today would not guarantee turbines arrive before 2030 under current backlog conditions.

Stak has not disclosed whether it has placed orders with any manufacturer or secured production slots. For a facility with a 2028 first-power target, turbine procurement is the item that every other schedule depends on. Without it, project timelines are aspirational rather than contractual.

Investors and Customers

The company has said it is raising capital through McKinley Alaska Private Investment, but has not named institutional backers, disclosed how much equity is committed, or confirmed any AI operator as a tenant. Northern Journal reporter Nathaniel Herz found that Stak had not been forthcoming about confirmed customers or investors. The lease application, technically detailed and described by energy experts as thorough, stops short of naming any offtake agreements or committed equity investors.

That profile, a credible site with professionally assembled permitting documents and politically connected advisors but no confirmed anchor tenant, is common at the early stage of large infrastructure projects. It is also the stage at which the most ambitious ones most often stall indefinitely.

Carbon, Permitting, and the Path From Paper to Power

Running 3 gigawatts off natural gas creates a carbon liability that Stak’s potential tenants cannot easily ignore. Technology companies including Microsoft, Google, and Meta maintain formal emissions-reduction targets, and a fossil-fuel-only power source in a remote Arctic location without access to wind, solar, or existing carbon-capture infrastructure creates a sourcing problem for any tenant that must report against a net-zero commitment.

Stak says in its application that it is monitoring carbon capture and storage technology, but acknowledges that the North Slope’s geology for sequestration is poorly understood and that no capture infrastructure exists there yet. For the foreseeable future, each megawatt-hour the facility produces will carry a full fossil fuel emissions footprint.

Governor Dunleavy’s administration formally found the project in the state’s best interest on May 12, and the Alaska DNR public comment portal is accepting input on that preliminary decision through June 15 before any lease can be finalized. If Stak can show a signed gas supply agreement, confirmed turbine orders, and named tenants before the 50-year lease goes final, the project becomes a genuine competitor in the AI infrastructure race. If those three items are still open when a new Alaska governor takes office in 2027, the square mile off the Dalton Highway will be the most detailed unfunded concept in the state’s energy history.