Seagate is pushing ahead with a plan to tack on roughly 64,500 square feet to its Normandale campus in Bloomington, a move the company says would significantly boost wafer fabrication capacity to keep up with AI-fueled demand for massive data storage. The expansion proposal landed at city hall this week and is slated for Bloomington Planning Commission review on Thursday, June 18. The project is mapped for Seagate’s Normandale campus near the intersection of Nord Avenue and Computer Avenue, and local officials along with industry watchers say it could be an early indicator of more onshore manufacturing investment tied to AI workloads.
According to the Minneapolis/St. Paul Business Journal, Seagate has filed plans outlining a 64,500-square-foot addition that the company says would nearly triple the campus’s wafer fabrication output in response to surging AI workloads and demand from hyperscale cloud customers. The application asks Bloomington for both preliminary and final development approvals in a single packet so the project can move quickly if it is greenlit.
The City of Bloomington has issued a public notice listing the expansion as Case #PL2026-90 and setting a public hearing for 6 p.m. on Thursday in council chambers, according to the City of Bloomington. The notice identifies the affected addresses as 7850 Nord Ave S and 7801 Computer Ave S and directs residents to online planning materials if they want to study the proposal or submit testimony before commissioners take it up.
Why Seagate Is Doubling Down On Storage
Per SEC filings, Seagate reported about $9.1 billion in revenue for fiscal 2025, an increase of roughly 39% year over year, and credited much of that jump to higher mass-capacity exabytes shipped to nearline cloud customers. That rebound in the top line, along with the extra capital flexibility that comes with it, is the backdrop for Seagate’s push to scale up wafer and recording-head production capacity for larger data-center and AI workloads.
Bloomington’s Wafer Hub And Jobs On The Line
Seagate’s Normandale/Bloomington complex has long served as a base for the company’s recording-head and wafer process operations, and the firm previously floated a much larger addition in 2022, according to reporting by the Star Tribune. That earlier concept called for an 81,000-square-foot, two-story expansion, and city documents at the time indicated the buildout could support roughly 45 fabrication workers per shift. Local labor analysts note that investments in wafer lines typically lean on a mix of highly skilled technicians and engineers, even if overall headcount does not climb as fast as production capacity.
What Happens Next For The Campus
Planning materials tied to the current application are posted through the city’s online portal, and the public can show up in person, stream the meeting, or offer comments by phone, the notice states. Written feedback is requested by noon on the day of the hearing so it can be forwarded to commissioners ahead of time. If the Planning Commission and City Council approve both preliminary and final development plans, the project would move into the permitting phase and on to construction scheduling. Bloomington’s permit records already show a pattern of Seagate-related site updates in recent years, and more specifics on timing and project economics are expected to surface after the June 18 hearing.
