Montana’s technology sector is continuing to broaden its footprint across the state, while a new wave of potential data-center investment could add another major component to the state’s changing economy.
The University of Montana’s Bureau of Business and Economic Research highlighted high-tech businesses, artificial intelligence and data centers as part of its 2026 Midyear Economic Update, examining how the digital economy could reshape employment and investment in Montana.
Technology employment is also spreading beyond the state’s traditional tech centers. BBER research released this year found computer-systems-design jobs expanding into new areas of Montana while the industry’s wage gap with the national average has narrowed.
The trend represents a longer-term shift in a state economy historically associated with agriculture, natural resources and tourism. Montana’s technology industry has grown from a relatively small economic niche into a more established source of higher-paying professional employment.
Data centers could represent the next phase.
BBER has begun examining the potential economic effects of large artificial-intelligence data centers in Montana, including the investment and employment that could accompany their construction and operation. The research was featured alongside the state’s broader high-tech sector during economic seminars held across Montana this summer.
The opportunity also comes with significant infrastructure questions.
Large AI data centers can require enormous amounts of electricity, making generation capacity and the transmission grid increasingly important considerations as Montana weighs potential projects. BBER has separately examined the adequacy of the state’s future electricity supply as demand changes.
The development could put Montana at the intersection of two industries in which the state has significant resources: energy and technology.
Montana’s relatively inexpensive land, energy resources and growing technology workforce could make the state attractive for additional digital infrastructure investment. But large projects would also bring questions about electricity demand, infrastructure costs and how much of their economic benefit remains within local communities.
BBER’s latest work suggests the state’s technology economy is no longer confined primarily to software companies and startups. The emergence of artificial intelligence and large-scale computing infrastructure is broadening the discussion to include energy production, construction and other industries that could benefit from billions of dollars of new capital investment.
For Montana, the question increasingly isn’t whether technology will be part of the state’s economy, but how large a role it will ultimately play.