Tax breaks for an 800MW Nebius data center campus in Independence, Missouri, have been approved.

The measures approved by the Independence City Council included: two series of Taxable Industrial Development Revenue Bonds totaling around $150 billion; a 98 percent real property tax abatement and a 90 percent personal property tax abatement lasting for twenty years; and a sales tax exemption on construction materials.

Industrial Development Revenue Bonds, otherwise known as Industrial Revenue Bonds, are tax-exempt debt securities issued by a government on behalf of a private company, making them cheaper than other forms of debt. However, they are "pass-through" instruments, meaning they are secured by the revenue of the private company.

After the successful vote, Nebius said in a statement: “We appreciate the City Council’s vote tonight and are grateful for the backing from education, labor, and business leaders, as well as the broader Independence community.

“Our AI factory is purpose-built to fit in – from design to construction to operation, we’re focused on being a good community partner and are excited to move forward with our project that will deliver broad economic, education, and community benefits.”

The company is planning a 2.5 million sq ft (232,255 sqm) campus in the existing Eastgate Commerce Center, off Little Blue Parkway and Missouri Highway 78 in Jackson County. It bought the 398-acre land parcel from real estate firm NorthPoint Development in early December.

Up to ten buildings could be developed on 400 acres, and the campus will use a closed-loop cooling system.

Power would be drawn from a new facility developed by Independence Power Partners (IPP) at the retired Blue Valley Power Plant site. This is set to provide 250MW of capacity by October 2027, and 1.1GW by December 2029.

Opposition to the proposed campus has been fierce. A public Facebook group called “Stop the AI Data Center in Independence” has amassed around 2,900 members, and those opposed to the campus are set to file a referendum petition against the data center.

If the petition is signed by a certain number of registered voters, the council’s decision to grant tax abatements and issue bonds would be put to a public vote, leaving its fate in the hands of a simple majority.

Nasdaq-listed Nebius is a cloud provider focused on AI workloads. The firm was spun out from Russia’s Yandex in 2024, offering access to GPUs across its presence in the US, the Middle East, and Europe.