Could Minnesota power the AI revolution?

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Artificial intelligence, driven by large language models (LLMs) like ChatGPT, is this century’s most exciting technological breakthrough, poised to reshape every one of Minnesota’s industries from health care to agriculture. These LLMs are more than just hyper-intelligent chatbots; they can identify diseases earlier in patients, predict the genomes of climate-resistant higher-yield crops, and even perfect the flavors of the next irresistible snack food.

Yet the economic fruits of the AI industry itself have ripened in places far from Minnesota. This need not be the case. With bold investments and a forward-looking strategy, Minnesota can not only use the tools of AI, but also become a leader in the AI revolution itself.

During a recent visit to the San Francisco headquarters of Anthropic — an AI company that developed one of the world’s most advanced LLMs, Claude — I got to see the magic in action. Imagine asking Claude to brainstorm new Lucky Charms flavors. Behind the scenes, we could see his neural network light up like a thunderstorm, drawing connections from seemingly unrelated data it previously collected: the history of marshmallows, Julia Child’s “Mastering the Art of French Cooking,” Irish folklore and even 1990s cartoons.

But this intelligence comes at a price. The “training” process Anthropic took to teach Claude how to connect this disparate information into a coherent and useful response had an electricity bill of more than $100 million. Training the next generation of LLMs, including ChatGPT-5, will cost upwards of $1 billion each in energy alone.

Without access to sufficient, reliable energy, new further-groundbreaking LLMs won’t come online as quickly. Or if they do, they will be developed in China, where neither the environmental impact of such energy production nor the safety guardrails for such an advanced technology are taken seriously.

Why shouldn’t these AI companies build their next-generation data centers in Minnesota? Minnesota has been a leader in renewable energy production. A majority of our energy comes from zero-carbon sources, allowing tech companies to remain at the leading edge of innovation without sacrificing their public commitments to climate goals. Forget year-round expensive air conditioning — Minnesota’s winters are nature’s cooling system. Our land is less expensive, more centrally located, and more climate-resilient than coastal tech hubs. And with our high concentration of Fortune 500 companies, we already have the skilled workforce necessary to build and maintain the necessary infrastructure.

Facebook, Amazon, and Microsoft recently announced plans to develop multi-billion dollar data centers in Rosemount and Becker. So why aren’t more tech companies following suit? The answer lies in infrastructure. In addition to the grid modernization already underway, we need a lot more energy, and therein lies an opportunity in disguise. Since 1994, Minnesota has had a moratorium on the building of the one zero-carbon source with the greatest capacity, reliability and land efficiency: nuclear. Other states understand that renewables alone are not enough.

“Leaders across the country have already created state authorities, enacted policies to de-risk nuclear construction, or provide funding to encourage nuclear workforce training to participate in the new data economy,” says Taylor Stevenson, CEO of Envoy Public Labs, a St. Paul-based stakeholder engagement firm specializing in energy. Without lifting the 1994 moratorium, Stevenson says, “Minnesota risks more than falling behind, it risks losing its energy sovereignty and an opportunity to participate in the new data economy.”

Failing to act could have devastating environmental consequences. Data centers in less climate-conscious states will likely rely on coal or natural gas. Those built off-grid will need diesel backups. That’s a lot of CO₂. By stepping up, Minnesota can offer an alternative: cutting-edge AI infrastructure powered by clean energy. A future where Americans need not choose between embracing life-enhancing new technologies and a world without more dirty air and climate disasters.

The potential economic benefits are staggering. Picture new construction projects all across the state, thousands of new clean-energy and tech jobs, and a Twin Cities ecosystem where startups can design, train and launch AI models — all without leaving Minnesota. Minnesota has always been a beacon for important industry; timely energy investments could amplify the short-term benefits of the construction projects already underway, and transform us into a global hub for AI innovation in the long-run. A “Silicon Prairie”!

The hydropower of St. Anthony Falls once turned Minneapolis into the flour-milling capital of the world. Now, our energy leadership could power not just the mills that feed the world, but the minds that shape its future.

Nathan Bruschi is president of Anchorwork Inc., a private equity firm based in Bloomington, and lives in Edina. He is a term member at the Council on Foreign Relations.