Reno

Reno, Nevada is a mid-sized US city in the western Great Basin, best known historically as a gambling and tourism centre but increasingly significant as a data-centre and logistics hub. Its arid climate, relatively cheap land, low corporate tax burden, and access to hydroelectric power via the Western Interconnection grid have attracted technology infrastructure investment throughout the 2020s. The city's council voted on 1 June 2026 on whether to extend a 30-day permit pause on new data-centre approvals; three campuses — Colovore, Oppidan, and Centra — had already cleared preliminary review before the pause.

Reno sits in Washoe County and is Nevada's second-largest city by population, after Las Vegas. It occupies a different economic position: less tourism-dependent and more diversified across light manufacturing, logistics, and technology. The University of Nevada Reno underpins a technical workforce pipeline. Reno's proximity to the San Francisco Bay Area (roughly four hours by road) makes it a preferred second-tier data-centre market for operators seeking lower costs without West Coast latency penalties.

The 2026 permit pause places Reno within a broader US pattern of local governments seeking to slow or condition data-centre approvals amid concerns over water use, power load, and fiscal impact on public services. Reno's situation parallels the moratorium fight in Hill County, Texas, where a developer sued for regulatory taking after commissioners blocked a 1,235 MW campus. The Reno vote is a lower-stakes but structurally similar test of whether municipal governments can pause approvals long enough to build impact frameworks without triggering legal exposure.