With $50 million dollars, Atlas Astro, a Swiss-based company founded in 2021 that has never built anything, will kick off construction of a huge data center planned near Horn Rapids in Richland.
The payment procures “long lead-time materials (LLTM) for Line and Load Interconnections.”
The five buildings in the data center, totaling 500,000 sq. ft., will cost $500 million and require 350 megawatts of power, about the amount to power 150,000 homes. Richland has about 22,000. The source for that power has never been fully explained. Large amounts of water are also required.
The Richland City Council will discuss new agreements with Atlas Agro at their 6:00 pm Tuesday evening meeting. Public comments are at the beginning of the meeting.
Although the city of Richland is the “middleman” between BPA and the “customer,” Atlas Agro, Richland City Manager Jon Amundson wrote the Observer that the customer would be responsible for making all payments directly to BPA and it is “pay-as-you-go.”
“The agreements were structured specifically to keep growth-related costs with the requesting customer and away from existing utility customers,” Amundson wrote.
In December, the city council approved a $250,000 one-year, non-refundable option for Atlas Agro’s purchase of 275 acres of city-owned land for the data center near Horn Rapids. Atlas Agro could extend the option for another year under the same terms.
Daniel Holmes, one of Atlas Agro’s founders, who has experience in the conventional fertilizer business, wrote the city on Sept. 2025 that the data center project, when built, would provide 100 jobs.
Data center appears to be the back-up plan for the fertilizer plant.
Atlas Agro first proposed to Richland a $1 billion green fertilizer plant, and the city approved that project for $20 million in tax breaks. But grants the project depended on were canceled when Donald Trump became president.
In an article titled, “’Creative or desperate?’” the Tri-City Herald noted Atlas Agro’s need to raise money after the Department of Energy canceled a grant that could have provided more than $157 million.
The cancellations came in 2025 after Macquarie Asset Management, an Australian company, had invested $325 million in the fertilizer company in 2023.
Atlas Agro seeks investors for a fertilizer plant in Brazil.
Atlas Agro, founded in 2021 and based in Zug, Switzerland, “is creating a new path to sustainable agriculture with low carbon nitrogen fertilizers,” according to their website.
The company has proposed another low carbon fertilizer plan in Brazil and is currently seeking investors for that project.
Richland City Council will discuss this matter tomorrow night at Richland City Hall, 625 Swift at 6:00 p.m. Citizen comments are allowed at the early part of the meeting. The meeting can be streamed live on City View or watched live on Cable Channel 192.
I would purchase some acreage at that same price, where and how do I apply?
Hi Tom, I appreciate your comment. I think you may be confusing to Richland “deals.” If Atlas Agro exercises it’s $250,000 option to buy Richland’s 275 acres for a data center, they will pay $23.9 million. The $50 million that was authorized at the last city council meeting was for equipment to upgrade the electrical grid that goes to the property. Here’s more information on the land deal: https://richlandwa.portal.civicclerk.com/event/5543/files/report/17938 Thank you for reading the Observer. Randy
Richland residents…Do we really want this monstrosity here contaminating our community and hijacking our resources? Built by a company that has never built anything before? Plenty of us have seen and heard the woes of other communities across the country that have been affected negatively by data centers. I for one, do not want this here! There are 4000 Data centers spread over the U.S. How many more do we really need? Why are these things not being built in the backyards of the rich?
Hi Futuristically, I appreciate your comment. A woman who spoke during the public comment section of the Tuesday night city council meeting pointed out several missing pieces from the city’s contract with Atlas Agro, and she included “stranded asset protection.” Atlas Agro has $325 million in funding from an Australian Asset Management company for projects estimated to cost $2.5 billion. What happens if they go bankrupt leaving this city with a half-completed data center, or an abandoned data center??? There are more questions than answers. Thank you for reading the Observer. Randy