Coreweave Data Center Project in North Dakota Faces Significant Workforce Housing Challenge

Ellendale, North Dakota – Coreweave, an AI hyperscaler, is confronting a substantial housing shortage for the 600 contractors required to build its new data center in North Dakota. Peter Salanki of Coreweave highlighted the critical issue, stating, "We need 600 contractors to run cables in a new data center in North Dakota and there are 20 hotel rooms." This statement, made by Salanki at Pytorchcon, underscores a significant logistical hurdle for the ambitious project.

The data center in question is part of a major collaboration with Applied Digital, located at the Polaris Forge 1 Campus in Ellendale, North Dakota. Applied Digital and Coreweave have finalized lease agreements totaling 400 megawatts (MW) of critical IT capacity for Coreweave's artificial intelligence (AI) and high-performance computing (HPC) initiatives. The first 100MW data center is scheduled to be operational in the fourth quarter of 2025, with subsequent phases expected in mid-2026 and 2027.

The Ellendale campus is designed to scale up to 1 gigawatt over time, leveraging North Dakota's cool climate and renewable power for sustainability and cost efficiency. This expansion is part of Coreweave's strategy to meet the escalating demand for AI infrastructure, with the company recently securing a $2.6 billion delayed draw term loan facility to support hardware and cloud infrastructure. The project represents a significant investment in the region, with Applied Digital's lease agreements with Coreweave expected to generate approximately $11 billion in revenue over 15 years.

The challenge of accommodating a large temporary workforce in rural areas is not unique to this project, as rapid industrial and technological developments often outpace local infrastructure. While the economic benefits of such data centers are substantial for North Dakota, attracting and housing the necessary skilled labor remains a key concern. The Pytorchcon event, where Salanki made his remarks, is a prominent annual conference for the open-source machine learning framework, indicating the high-profile nature of Coreweave's AI-focused endeavors.