A USAF F-22 Raptor flies over Edwards Air Force Base in California in February 2022. (Shawn White/U.S. Air Force)
The U.S. Air Force is offering to lease about 3,000 acres across five bases to private companies for the construction of artificial intelligence data centers.
More than two-thirds of the land — about 2,115 acres — is at Edwards Air Force Base in the Southern California desert.
The Request for Lease Proposal released this month calls for the “underutilized” base land to be used for AI centers.
President Donald Trump called for using public lands to accelerate the development of AI centers in Executive Order 14318, issued on July 28.
Projects must be worth at least $500 million and require 100 megawatts of power. Proposals must be accompanied by evidence that a company has produced major AI center projects in the past. The new proposals do not have to be tied to defense projects.
In addition to Edwards, parcels under 300 acres each are available at Davis-Monthan AFB in Arizona, Arnold AFB in Tennessee, Robins AFB in Georgia and Joint Base McGuire-Dix-Lakehurst in New Jersey.
The Edwards AFB acreage is at seven sites on the more than 300,000-acre base north of Los Angeles. It’s the Air Force’s premier flight testing and development base. It’s currently home to the prototypes of the B-21 Raider bomber and T-7 Red Hawk jet trainer.
Proposals are due by Nov. 14, and bids must be for “fair market value” for the leases that the Air Force said would likely run 50 years. The Air Force plans to announce acceptance of proposals after Jan. 1.
