Global AI (Colorado), LLC, the New York-based developer behind GlobalAI Cloud Inc., received a unanimous 5-0 approval from the Weld County Board of County Commissioners on September 9, 2026, for a Use by Special Review permit to convert a former Kodak manufacturing building into a high-density AI data center in unincorporated Weld County between Windsor and Greeley. The decision was first reported by the Weld County Government Newsroom and picked up by Colorado Public Radio News, the Greeley Tribune, and BizWest.
What was approved
Permit USR26-0019 authorizes Global AI to repurpose an existing 400,000-square-foot manufacturing building, originally constructed in 1971 for Kodak, into a data center focused on AI workloads. The approved project covers a 41-acre footprint within a larger 438-to-483-acre campus that Global AI purchased in late 2025. Equipment is concentrated inside the existing building, with a 0.8-acre exterior pad on the east side reserved for chillers, transformers, and backup generators.
| Detail | Approved figure |
|---|---|
| Permit | USR26-0019 (Use by Special Review) |
| Vote | 5-0 unanimous |
| Approval date | September 9, 2026 |
| Project footprint | 41 acres |
| Building reused | 400,000 sq ft (built 1971) |
| Exterior equipment pad | 0.8 acres |
| Total campus acreage | 438-483 acres |
| Long-term power ambition | Up to 1 gigawatt |
The commissioners' vote followed a unanimous recommendation from the Weld County Planning Commission and an approximately eight-hour public hearing.
Who Global AI is
Global AI (Colorado), LLC operates under GlobalAI Cloud Inc. and is headquartered in New York. The company is positioning the Weld County facility as a "sovereign AI" data center, with named technology partners including Nvidia and Humain, an Arabic-language AI model backed by the Saudi sovereign wealth fund. County officials have described the project as a potential largest-in-Colorado AI data center.
Why Weld County, and why now
- •An industrial building of this scale is a rare find. A 400,000-square-foot reinforced manufacturing building from the industrial era is difficult to source anywhere in the Mountain West, let alone with 438-plus acres of surrounding land already in a single ownership.
- •I-1 zoning reduced the regulatory lift. The existing light industrial designation meant Global AI was pursuing a special review rather than a rezoning, a meaningful difference in timeline and risk.
- •The Front Range AI land rush is accelerating. Northern Virginia and Phoenix constraints are pushing hyperscale and AI-focused developers toward secondary markets with available land and transmission access. Colorado's I-25 corridor is an established alternative.
- •Sovereign AI demand is creating a new class of buyer. Projects tied to nation-state AI priorities, like those anchored by Humain, are moving quickly and seeking purpose-built or purpose-converted facilities outside the core colocation markets.
Repurposing a known industrial asset with established utilities, site history, and I-1 zoning compresses the development clock in ways that a greenfield campus in the same county simply cannot match.
Infrastructure questions still in motion
The county approval is complete, but two material threads remain open. Power access at the scale Global AI is targeting, and ultimately at the 1-gigawatt ambition the company has cited publicly, involves utility coordination that has generated questions from residents and local media and has not been fully resolved in public filings. Separately, Global AI is in active annexation discussions with the City of Greeley to secure a long-term municipal water supply for the campus. Neither process has concluded, and both will shape how quickly construction phases can advance beyond the initial building conversion.
Local reception
The eight-hour public hearing before the Board of County Commissioners indicates real community scrutiny, particularly around electricity demand and water. The commissioners approved the permit unanimously, but the length of the hearing and the ongoing utility discussions suggest that neighbors and local stakeholders are watching the project closely. Annexation negotiations with Greeley will likely be the next public flashpoint.
What it means for the region's labor market
The former Kodak and Carestream Health campus employed a large regional workforce in printing, imaging, and chemical manufacturing for decades. That history matters here: contractors and tradespeople already familiar with the site's infrastructure, utility interconnections, and physical layout represent a faster onboarding path than any comparable greenfield project in Colorado would offer. Weld County's existing industrial base, including energy, oil and gas, and agricultural processing, draws from the same electricians, millwrights, and pipefitters a data center conversion requires. The Denver metropolitan area, 50 to 60 miles south along I-25, adds depth in specialized MEP and commissioning talent. The challenge will be peak-period competition: the Denver-Fort Collins corridor has no shortage of large construction projects bidding for the same skilled trades simultaneously. We break down roles, pay ranges, and where the talent pipeline sits in our guide to hiring data center talent in Weld County, Colorado.
Sources: the Weld County Government Newsroom, which first reported the approval, and Colorado Public Radio News, the Greeley Tribune, and BizWest.
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