Background and office
Doug Burgum is the 55th U.S. secretary of the interior. He previously served as governor of North Dakota and co-founded the venture-capital firm Arthur Ventures. The department administers major federal land-management agencies, including the Bureau of Land Management. Interior biography.
Data centers and public lands
Executive Order 14318, issued July 23, 2025, directs agencies to facilitate eligible data-center infrastructure and consider appropriate federal land. A September 8, 2026 order separately delegates certain Defense Production Act energy authorities to the interior secretary. These orders do not remove other applicable legal constraints.
The Interior Department published its fiscal 2026–2030 strategic plan in November 2026. The plan calls for workforce consolidation and opportunities for states, localities and Tribes to purchase federal lands; it does not by itself enact individual land sales.
Disclosed financial holdings and response
ProPublica's November 6 investigation, drawing on Burgum's 2026 disclosure and analysis supplied by Save Our Parks, estimated his AI-related investment interests at $18.1 million–$64.4 million. These are disclosure-based ranges, not an exact valuation or evidence of financial gains from any specific BLM permit. His ethics agreement required him to leave management positions at Arthur Ventures but not to divest all holdings.
Interior told ProPublica that Burgum fulfilled his ethics and disclosure obligations and rejected suggestions that personal investments drive departmental decisions. Ethics specialists interviewed by the publication disagreed about appearance-of-conflict concerns; the reported investments alone do not establish a statutory violation.
Congressional scrutiny
On October 29–30, Senators Ron Wyden, Alex Padilla and Jeff Merkley requested information about the secretary's contacts with data-center developers and proposed federal-land projects. They requested a response by November 16, 2026. A requested response is not a finding of misconduct.
Original sources and reporting
- Interior: Burgum biography
- ProPublica: investigation and Burgum response
- ProPublica: financial disclosure index
- White House: July 2025 data-center order
- White House: September 2026 delegation
- Interior strategic plan
- Senator Padilla: October oversight letter
Evidence limits: A financial disclosure documents a holding, not improper participation in a government decision. A proposal does not establish an approval. Sources are dated and may change.