New Mexico Tech steps back as residents trace CEO's trail of failed data center pitches

After months of public opposition and growing scrutiny of the developer, New Mexico Tech is no longer involved in a proposed 10,000-acre AI data center project in Socorro County, New Mexico.

The reversal comes as residents and local officials scrutinize developer Jason Bak's track record of promoting clean energy and data-related projects that have rarely come to fruition.

What's happening?

According to a report from Source New Mexico, Bak, a Canadian tech executive and the CEO of Green Data Center Real Estate Inc., pitched Socorro County on a solar-powered hyperscale AI data center that would rely in part on atmospheric water generators instead of drawing heavily on local water supplies.

A central finding in Source NM's reporting is that neither Bak nor his company has ever finished a data center project, despite multiple efforts to develop other sites, something Bak has acknowledged.

According to Source NM, New Mexico Tech, the local university, ended its participation in Bak's project in part because it does not control a sufficiently large contiguous parcel of land for the data center. The outlet also said the Socorro County Board of Commissioners is getting ready to consider a one-year moratorium on data centers and related infrastructure.

Residents became more wary after learning about Bak's earlier Illinois proposals, including a crypto-mining plan in Murphysboro that was never built and a failed attempt to acquire Harvard's former Motorola campus for what was described as a "solar-powered data hub service."

Murphysboro Mayor Will Stephens offered a blunt assessment of the situation: "The track record that I can see is all style and no substance."

Why does it matter?

The dispute fits a wider trend: as AI companies add more computing capacity, rural areas are being targeted as sites for enormous data centers that promise jobs and investment but also raise concerns about water use, land use, and electricity demand.

The physical infrastructure that powers AI can consume enormous amounts of electricity and water, potentially straining local resources, driving up energy costs, and introducing security or misuse concerns if growth outpaces oversight.

In Socorro County, that balance feels particularly immediate, as residents weigh potential economic gains against the need to safeguard limited natural resources. Board Chair Joe Gonzales told Source NM that with any data center, "our concerns are water, electricity and the environment."

What's being done?

County officials are responding with more caution. If Socorro County adopts the proposed moratorium, data center development would be paused for a year while a committee reviews what protections and rules should be established.

Such a pause would give local leaders time to develop zoning or permitting standards for high-impact projects, which Gonzales suggested could become necessary for more rural counties as AI infrastructure spreads.

Bak, meanwhile, has argued that his earlier proposals were not failures so much as pivots. He told Source NM that when previous plans fell apart, his company adapted to site limitations.

He has also tried to reassure residents by acknowledging the industry's poor reputation. During a recent town hall, when a critic held up a sign that read "big data big lie," Bak replied: "You're not wrong."

"I think big data has been bad (at) interfacing with communities in many different ways," Bak said, as reported by Source NM. "I think we got off on the back foot because of the reputation of the industry."

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