Eastern Montana data center land deal sparks lawsuit over 'stolen' plans

Before Quantica Infrastructure announced their plans for a data center south of Broadview last summer, another developer had its own plans in the works since 2020, according to a lawsuit filed Jan. 9.

That developer was FX Solutions. Headed by Missoulian Rick Tabish, the company had purchased hundreds of acres of land surrounding the Broadview substation and had planned to develop a cryptomining facility there.

The substation they planned to connect to was the same one Big Sky Campus intends to connect to and that NorthWestern Energy has expressed a willingness to provide up to 1,000 megawatts of power to.

The lawsuit puts forth a narrative that reads at times more like a legal thriller, telling a story of deceit and theft over years, rather than a typical stolid complaint.

“This case is about how a Texas private equity fund duped a loyal Montana businessman into selling its hundred of acres of land surrounding a key power substation by promising him the power he need to build and run a data center — and then deliberately refused to provide that power so it could build its own data center on that land and take the hundreds of millions he could make,” the complaint began.

That Texas private equity fund is Houston-based EnCap Investments. They announced the creation of Quantica Infrastructure in July with a goal to build data centers while integrating renewable energy assets.

Along with EnCap, the lawsuit names the fund's subsidiaries as defendants, including Quantica and former Yellowstone County energy developer Broad Reach Power. EnCap, historically steeped in oil and gas investments, has been influential in supporting nearly all renewable energy projects north of Billings within the past decade. Consequently, Quantica through EnCap owns about 5,100 acres of land and 40,000 acres of renewable energy leases.

The first paragraph of the complaint concluded by alleging that EnCap and its subsidiaries took Tabish’s land he had purchased and invested in and proceeded to steal his idea.

EnCap and Quantica are “now building its own data center in an effort to put (Tabish’s) hundreds of millions into its pockets."

The lawsuit introduces Tabish as a “Montana man known for working hard and investing locally.” It doesn’t mention what else he is known for.

Tabish previously made national headlines in the late '90s after being convicted on charges related to the mysterious death of casino heir Ted Binion. In a 2022 interview with Las Vegas Review-Journal describing his cryptoming enterprise, Tabish said he “just wants to be looked at like a good person who does good things. I hold no grudges. I’ve moved way beyond that.”

FX Solutions previously operated a Bitcoin mining operation in Butte, which was halted after a majority stakeholder was charged with defrauding investors out of $722 million.

The company was overseeing construction of a $1.9 billion data center in North Dakota in 2022 while Butte-based data center operator Atlas Power operated it. County commissioners voted to cut power to the project in 2023 after the project failed to meet zoning codes and ordinances.

Tabish’s attorneys are from Edwards & Culver, a Billings firm that has historically reached multimillion dollar verdicts, including a $21 million verdict against NorthWestern Energy. While involved in the Quantica deal, the utility isn’t named as a defendant in this lawsuit.

In a statement to the Gazette, Quantica strongly disagreed with the allegations made in the lawsuit. The company said they were "surprised" by the lawsuit, noting they had no contact with FX Solutions or Tabish since they were formed in late 2024.

"The conduct alleged in the complaint predates the formation of Quantica; because this is active litigation, we cannot comment on matters we were not involved in," Quantica Infrastructure said in a statement. "Nothing in this lawsuit changes our focus on delivering responsibly developed, power-first digital infrastructure that aligns with Montana’s goals and benefits local communities."

EnCap did not respond to a request for comment by deadline.

Filling ‘their pockets with data center money’

In 2020, FX Solutions acquired 350 acres of land that formed a nearly complete “donut” around the electrical substation in Broadview — one of the largest substations in Montana, connected to the Colstrip power plant. Nearly anyone else who wanted access to electricity would have to go through the parcel.

The plan was to build a data center, initially intended for Bitcoin mining, but there was a problem. Getting power from a utility can take years for data centers and require a significant and uninterruptible source of electricity.

The lawsuit estimated that the process to get an interconnection agreement with NorthWestern would take several years. FX Solutions had spent millions of dollars in the hopes of obtaining energy and Tabish never got that agreement that the development of the data center hung on.

Back in 2020, EnCap and Broad Reach Power knew FX Solutions was in line with NorthWestern for the interconnection agreement, the complaint stated. They also knew the difficulties there would be in reaching such an agreement. Simultaneously, the defendants also wanted the land because it surrounded the power substation, the complaint alleges.

“That would give them the physical access to the substation they needed in order to run their multibillion-dollar wind and solar energy project that they had been working on for years,” the complaint stated. “So, Broad Reach Power made a promise — if FX agreed to sell 350 acres to BRP, BRP would provide FX the power it needed for its data center.”

The multibillion-dollar project has yet to manifest, but was planned as Buffalo Trail and Wind and it would have likely exported energy to further Western states. The EnCap-founded Broad Reach Power purchased leases and property for the first time in 2019. The project itself has been in the hands of a few businesses since first being planned more than a decade ago.

The complaint stated Broad Reach Power worked out a deal to provide the power that FX Solutions needed and was queued up for, with most of the 350 acres given to the company.

“This was a critical development for FX because it meant FX would be one of the early data centers in the country and be able to start making massive profits immediately,” the complaint stated.

Also helping the deal was that power offered to the data center developer was to be sold at “rock bottom prices” lower than what was offered at the market, according to the complaint. Broad Reach Power paid $5.5 million for the 320 acres of undeveloped, arid farmland as part of an agreement on Nov. 20, 2020.

The company gifted 80 acres back to FX Solutions in the deal to construct its data center. It still has that parcel, according to Montana Cadastral. The business also has 160 acres 3.7 miles southwest of the parcel that are seemingly undeveloped, owned since 2020. The 38-page lawsuit leaves that parcel unmentioned.

Leadership associated with Quantica Infrastructure previously told the Gazette they had no idea what FX Solutions was doing with the property next to theirs and denied any direct association with Tabish. Most of the Big Sky Digital Infrastructure’s leadership doesn’t have direct Broad Reach Power connections, most instead have Talen Energy connections, though both have EnCap connections.

Broad Reach Power broke its agreement and never provided the power the data center needed, the complaint stated. The complaint tells how Tabish worked for years to get the power.

After the deal, EnCap “realized how valuable FX’s data center plan was and secretly worked behind the scenes to stop BRP from providing power to FX so EnCap could copy FX’s plan, build its own data center on FX’s land and keep BRP from selling power at then basement level prices,” the complaint stated.

EnCap and Quantica are now reaping the benefits from FX’s land and “are trying to fill their pockets with data center money,” the complaint stated. Big Sky Campus still doesn’t have a customer, according to leadership.

Allegations made

FX once had everything. Now it has nothing, the complaint said.

FX is out of potential hundreds of millions and is “left standing alone with a virtually useless 80-acre plot that continues to sit idle.”

“The stakes couldn’t be higher — and FX’s damages continue to soar every single day. Data centers have exploded in value and prevalence over the last several years ... and nowadays there aren't enough to keep up with demand,” the complaint stated.

The $5.5 million was initially “life changing” for FX because it allowed the firm to start building its own data center. Satellite images show the site was leveled in recent years.

However, the project still needed power. FX pressed Broad Reach Power repeatedly, but got nowhere. The renewable energy project was never built, though emails in February 2022, expected commercial operation by 2023 to 2024.

The complaint says they were strung along.

EnCap invited FX to bid on the unrealized multibillion dollar-wind and solar project they had planned, the complaint stated. FX was working to make the proper applications to do so.

In the summer of 2024, Broad Reach Power and EnCap had stopped communicating with Tabish altogether. In September 2024, in a meeting with NorthWestern CEO Brian Bird, Tabish learned the interconnection agreement he thought was in place to power the data center was never modified to actually power it.

NorthWestern declined to comment for this story. Spokesperson Jo Dee Black said customer information is confidential.

During 2024, the entities began transferring the renewable assets and associated land to another company. Its name was Quantica Infrastructure, announced a year later.

While FX Solutions initially planned to use its data center to mine bitcoin, Quantica and associated Big Sky Digital Infrastructure have spurned that idea from the beginning, with its CEO describing such operations as “shortsighted.” Instead, the company has focused on the artificial intelligence that is driving data center demand.

“This is absolutely not a cryptomining operation,” Quantica Infrastructure said in a past statement to the Gazette. “The Big Sky Digital Infrastructure project is designed to support artificial intelligence computing, cloud services, and enterprise data processing. These are demand-driven use cases powered by primarily renewable energy.”

After the announcement of Quantica’s data center, FX concluded that all potential sources of power for its data center are no longer available, including from NorthWestern.

The complaint, filed in Yellowstone County District Court, charged that EnCap and its related subsidiaries breached its initial terms of the agreement, wrongfully interfered with the contract and prospective economic advantage and is unjustly enriching itself.

“FX has been significantly harmed by EnCap’s and Quantica’s actions described above in taking the data center opportunity at Broadview Parcel for themselves, and therefore also precluding FX from developing its own data center there,” the complaint concluded. “FX has lost hundreds of millions, if not billions, of dollars in lost profits from its inability to mine Bitcoin at its data center, sell hosting services in its data center and its inability to sell the data center itself.”

The complaint requests a jury trial.

Thus far, there’s been few filed responses from defendants. On Feb. 20, a motion was filed to dismiss Broad Reach Power as a defendant. Besides its Mountain West assets, the company was purchased by French multinational utility company ENGIE. The Texas-based but Delaware-registered company dissolved in 2025. That means it’s incapable of being sued, attorneys stated.

As of Monday, no other responses had been filed.