The hyperscale artificial intelligence campus was designed to span 320 acres and deliver roughly 50 to 75 permanent jobs alongside 1,000 temporary construction roles. Negotiations advanced behind closed doors after City Administrator Eric Atkinson and Public Works Director David Schofield signed nondisclosure agreements barring them from discussing the developer. The city council subsequently voted in a closed session to approve a pre-development deal before newly elected council members could take their seats. Similar nondisclosure tactics involving Balloonist LLC occurred across several other Wisconsin cities, including Beaver Dam, where a project was ultimately revealed to be backed by M…
Key points
City administrators used nondisclosure agreements to negotiate the hyperscale facility aw…: City administrators used nondisclosure agreements to negotiate the hyperscale facility away from public view for nearly 18 months.
The developer's reliance on shell companies and secrecy reflects an identical playbook ex…: The developer's reliance on shell companies and secrecy reflects an identical playbook executed in four other Wisconsin municipalities.
Outgoing council members pushed the controversial project forward during closed-door sess…: Outgoing council members pushed the controversial project forward during closed-door sessions prior to newly elected officials taking office.
Sources checked by our analysis pipeline: 1
In the spring of 2025, Sydney Brennan was riding high. The 22-year-old was finishing college and was a newly elected councilwoman in Menomonie, a city of about 17,000 in the lush plains of north-western Wisconsin.
Weeks into the new job, she was invited to a meeting with consultants pitching a $1.6bn AI hyperscale datacenter campus that an undisclosed big tech company wanted to build just outside of town. The project’s numbers were eye-opening: a 320-acre site that would use an estimated 75,000 gallons of water per day, making it the most significant development in Menomonie’s nearly 150-year history.
Brennan had her concerns about datacenters and that the company was keeping its identity secret. One of the consultants told her that the developer was Balloonist LLC, a shell company incorporated in Delaware. The identity of the parent corporation bankrolling the project was known to only a handful of people, including two city officials who had signed nondisclosure agreements (NDAs) with Balloonist. Brennan and her fellow councilmembers were in the dark.
As tech giants scour the nation in a relentless pursuit of…
Technical incompatibilities between KeePassXC and cloud storage file identifiers previously triggered frequent synchronization failures, forcing tedious manual resets with physical security keys. To solve these disruptions and reduce exposure to major corporate cloud providers, the user deployed an encrypted, peer-to-peer sync pipeline. This shift prevents sensitive password database version histories from lingering on third-party servers while stabilizing cross-platform synchronization.
Union Labour and Employment Minister Mansukh Mandaviya announced the expanded digital offerings during the 74th Foundation Day celebration to streamline member access and eliminate in-person office visits. The new setup also provides subscribers with personalized assistance to fulfill requirements for the Pradhan Mantri Viksit Bharat Rozgar Yojana. These innovations aim to modernize operations for an organization currently overseeing a Rs 32 lakh crore corpus funded by over eight crore contributing members.
The late Shakespearean actor left a profound cultural imprint by portraying Captain Jean-Luc Picard on television beginning in 1987. His character came to represent a model of benevolent leadership and institutional justice during the post-Cold War era. By emphasizing diplomacy and humanitarian principles, the performance offered a lasting blueprint for the moral responsibilities of holding authority.