Tech companies and local officials across the country have been negotiating data center deals under nondisclosure agreements that keep the talks hidden from the public. In Boyce, Louisiana, Dallas-based Applied Digital is building a $3.6 billion, 300-acre campus called "Delta Forge 1." Its first phase alone will draw 300 megawatts of power -- enough for roughly 200,000 homes. Records requests turned up at least 54 NDAs signed by Louisiana officials since January 2024, covering a project internally known at different stages as "Project Lightning" and "Project Pixel." Pennsylvania has seen at least eight similar NDAs signed by township, county, and state officials since 2025. Nationally, legislators introduced more than 300 bills in the first half of 2026 to regulate the data center boom. At least ten states specifically targeted NDAs.

1. The Secrecy Is Costing Trust (residents and transparency advocates)

People find out about the power lines, the water use, and the traffic only after it's too late to weigh in.

Shannon McManus livestreamed the town hall on Delta Forge 1. The former sheriff's deputy filmed a June 2026 meeting where she and other Boyce residents objected. They said Applied Digital and local officials had told them almost nothing about the project. Beekeeper Foster Hensel and Baptist pastor Robert McLane raised the same demand at that meeting: tell us about the water use and the environmental impact before the deal is done, not after.

Anthony Township Supervisor Craig High refused to sign. When Talen Energy asked him to keep a data center project quiet, he said no: "The premise of saying, 'Will you not tell your constituents what you're about to do?' left a major bad taste in my mouth."

Public officials end up answering to the company instead of the voters. Public Citizen's Deanna Noël argues NDAs flip the normal accountability relationship. Officials end up answerable to the corporation that made them sign, not to the people who elected them. University of Florida journalism professor David Cuillier puts it more bluntly: "Information is power." He says secrecy lets governments make big decisions with zero public input. Pennsylvania NewsMedia Association's Melissa Melewsky calls any NDA that limits what an official can say about public business "a red flag."

2. But The Secrecy Is the Business (officials and industry defending it)

Companies want zoning locked down before the buyer's name goes public, or land prices spike.

Applied Digital's own CEO admits it looks bad. Wes Cummins said the NDA part "feels sneaky to people." But he defended it on legal grounds: Applied Digital is publicly traded, so details of a new campus count as "material non-public information." The NDA, he said, protects officials from accidentally tripping insider-trading rules.

Louisiana's development chief calls the secrecy essential. Economic Development Secretary Susan Bourgeois said NDAs are "fundamental" to competing against other states for the same investment.

Naming the buyer too early invites land speculation. Ed Campbell, the attorney representing a Limerick Township, Pennsylvania project, says it's standard practice to finalize zoning before revealing who the end user is, so speculators can't buy up land around the site first. Data Center Coalition VP Dan Diorio makes the same case industry-wide: revealing site-selection details early gives competitors insight into a company's business plan and can distort local land prices. He'd rather cap how long an NDA lasts than ban them outright.

3. So Lawmakers Are Taking the Choice Away (state legislators)

If officials won't stop signing NDAs voluntarily, several states are moving to make it illegal.

Pennsylvania State Sen. Tracy Pennycuick wants a blanket ban. Her bill, SB1408, would bar public agencies from signing data center NDAs at all. She rejects the "sometimes necessary" argument outright: "Categorically I would never sign an NDA. It's just dumb." The bill is waiting on a vote in the Senate Communications and Technology Committee this fall.

State Rep. Joe Ciresi goes after the tax break. His bill, HB2359, would strip a data center's tax exemption unless the company pledges not to use NDAs. It already passed the Pennsylvania House 171-31 and is now in the Senate Finance Committee.

Gov. Josh Shapiro didn't wait for either bill. He signed an executive order barring the agencies he oversees from signing data center NDAs going forward. Lawmakers in Michigan, Oklahoma, Kentucky, and Ohio have introduced similar bills to restrict or ban the practice.

Kenny Havard already proved it's possible. The West Feliciana Parish president is overseeing a $10 billion data center project with zero NDAs. He's posted the deal details on the parish's own website. His deal also rebuts the industry's core argument: "economic development doesn't require nondisclosure agreements."

Microsoft didn't wait for a law either. The company announced in March 2026 that it would end NDAs with local governments worldwide on data center projects, including tearing up existing ones. Menomonie, Wisconsin data-center opponent Blaine Halverson isn't convinced a pledge is enough. He wants companies to be "up front" and "encourage and allow free communication from the beginning," not just promise it after the backlash.

Where This Lands

Residents in Boyce and beyond say NDAs cut them out of decisions about the water, power, and land under their own homes. Applied Digital and Louisiana's own economic-development office say the secrecy is what lets these deals get done at all. They point to securities law and competition with other states. Pennsylvania's legislature is now testing whether that argument holds up once lawmakers take the choice out of officials' hands. Kenny Havard's $10 billion NDA-free deal in West Feliciana Parish is already sitting there as a counterexample.

Sources