Growing a Tech Economy Without Betting on Data Centers

Monroe Nichols was sworn in as Tulsa's 41st mayor in December 2024, the first Black mayor in the city's history. Born in Waco, Texas, to a family of police and parole officers, he came to Tulsa on a football scholarship, played wide receiver at the University of Tulsa, and earned a master's in public administration from the University of Oklahoma before spending eight years in the Oklahoma House of Representatives.

Nichols was hired in 2006 by then Mayor Kathy Taylor to work on a crime initiative, later served as chief of staff to a university president and as an economic development director, and sat on the Tulsa Technology Center Board of Education. That background shapes his governing style.

Nichols has set five goals: ending homelessness, improving student outcomes, expanding economic opportunity, making Tulsa the safest big city in America, and strengthening co-governance with tribal nations. He presented his fiscal year 2026 and 2027 budget to the City Council in April, tying department spending to those outcomes.

The test of his role as mayor is how Tulsa handles the AI boom. Nichols does not see data centers as an integral part of Tulsa's economic future, pointing to environmental concerns and the small number of permanent jobs the facilities create. He described some of that activity as tolerable and said he was not closing the door, but repeated that Tulsa will not base its economic strategy on server farms.

Two large projects are moving through the region, including Project Anthem, widely believed to be a Meta facility planned for 340 acres in far east Tulsa with construction beginning in early 2026, and Project Clydesdale, a 506-acre proposal on unincorporated county land whose backer has not been named. Nichols has let the permitting process run while making clear the city's growth plan is elsewhere.

When Microsoft and Black Tech Street launched the Greenwood Cyber + AI Lab in Tulsa’s historic Greenwood district, Nichols wanted the project to have a visible impact from the outset. The lab gives local residents access to training and career pathways in cybersecurity and artificial intelligence. Nichols described it as evidence that Tulsa is helping shape the future, while Tulsa Innovation Labs is a clear example of the region’s broader strategy in autonomous systems and AI, fields that underpin the metro’s federal Tech Hub designation.

The location matters as much as the technology. Greenwood was the site of the 1921 race massacre, and building a cyber and AI talent pipeline there ties the city's innovation economy to a neighborhood whose prosperity was destroyed a century ago. Nichols pairs the strategy with direct accountability. His Community Conversations series, which began its third round on May 5, brings city leadership into neighborhoods for face-to-face updates and questions, putting the full range of city services in one accessible setting.

The new Tulsa Public Safety Complex in East Tulsa is under construction, with police personnel scheduled to move out of the downtown headquarters by spring 2027 to make way for a convention center hotel. The city is also hosting the Route 66 centennial celebrations, putting Tulsa in front of a national audience.

Nichols treats technology as part of a wider civic strategy built around jobs, skills, public safety, and neighborhood investment. Data centers may still arrive, but Tulsa’s long-term bet is on developing local talent, connecting residents to emerging industries, and directing growth toward measurable public outcomes. The success of that model will depend on whether projects such as the Greenwood Cyber + AI Lab create durable career pathways and whether the city can carry the same discipline across housing, education, safety, and economic development.

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