Ypsilanti Rejects U-M and Los Alamos $1.2B AI Data Center

"This is our home. We said loudly and clearly that we do not want you here. We did not invite you," Shalina Nicohl Rankin, a Ypsilanti Township resident and University of Michigan graduate, told officials at a three-hour town hall over a proposed $1.2 billion data center, 404 Media reported.

The project pairs the University of Michigan with Los Alamos National Laboratory on a 220,000-square-foot hyperscale facility. In a letter to the township, LANL acknowledged that "some computational research conducted using the facility could relate to nuclear modernization" through "modeling and simulation to help scientists assess the safety, security, and reliability of the nation's existing nuclear stockpile."

Project lead engineer Steven Ceccio told the room "the project is tremendously smaller in scope and size than these commercial data centers," pointing to comparisons like The Barn in nearby Saline Township, described in the reporting as a 1.4 gigawatt, $56 billion OpenAI facility. Patricia Hurn, the University of Michigan faculty director on the project, said the facility "is going to be used for many different purposes including improving cancer care, strengthening the power grid."

The pitch did not land. Township supervisor Brenda Stumbo said the University "started with a lie." A resident identified as Corey told the panel "there is no trust, we don't believe you." Rankin called Los Alamos "one of the most despicable companies on the face of the Earth." LANL itself sent no one to the meeting. "If Los Alamos cared so much why aren't they here?" asked a resident named Jamie.

The University promised another meeting on October 1. Township attorney Douglas Winters declined it, and asked the University to come to the township's September 15 board meeting instead.