FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
July 13, 2026
Media Contact:
Colter Robinson, Founder
Dvelop AI
3626 SW 29th Street, Topeka, KS 66614
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As Shawnee County Debates Data Centers, Topeka Firm Offers Lean AI Solutions for Kansas Businesses
TOPEKA, Kan. — While Shawnee County commissioners weigh zoning changes for hyperscale data centers that could consume up to 5 million gallons of water daily and draw electricity equivalent to powering 100,000 homes, Topeka-based Dvelop AI is taking a different approach to the AI economy.
"The hyperscale data center conversation in Shawnee County is about building AI infrastructure that won’t help local businesses," said Colter Robinson, founder and lead developer at Dvelop AI. “Our clients don't need a billion-dollar server farm. Our business focuses on taking the tools already available and optimizing them which helps conserve the energy and water that those data centers would’ve consumed."
According to recent reporting from The Topeka Capital-Journal, KSNT 27 News, and WIBW, Evergy is in active negotiations to bring a data center to Shawnee County under the codename "Project Deep Blue." GO Topeka President Rhiannon Friedman confirmed three active data center leads in the region's project pipeline.
The Lincoln Institute of Land and Policy estimates that a mid-sized data center consumes as much water as a small town, while an AI-focused hyperscale facility can require up to 5 million gallons daily equivalent to a city of 50,000 people. Electrical demand for such facilities ranges from the equivalent of 10,000 homes for conventional centers to 100,000 homes for hyperscale AI operations.
A Kansas data center's processing power is exported wherever the customer sits. Whereas, running purpose-built AIs can cut the data center middleman out entirely. Running an AI model on your own hardware cuts consumption by orders of magnitude and doesn’t require tapping into your municipal water supplies.
A business taking this approach costs roughly 1/200,000th the power of a hyperscale data center. By guiding AI deployments toward lean, purpose-built solutions instead of brute-force scale, local optimization can deliver the economic benefits of AI without the multi-billion-dollar infrastructure.
"We're not adding to the resource load,” Robinson said. “We're helping Kansas businesses use what they already have more efficiently."
Dvelop AI's office is at 3626 SW 29th Street in Topeka, with in-person consultations available for Topeka, Lawrence, Kansas City, and surrounding communities, plus remote services nationwide.
"Most Kansas businesses don't need massive data centers,” Robinson said. “Most Kansas companies just need smart AI tools to help their workflow. That's the layer we build, and it doesn't require new water lines or power plants to do it."
About the Founder:
Colter Robinson brings a rare dual background to the Kansas AI market. He is an award-winning journalist with nearly a decade of AP news writing experience, 3,500+ published articles, and coverage carried by more than 100 ABC, Fox News, and CNBC affiliates as well as Yahoo Finance, MSN News, and NewsNation.
Learn more at www.dvelopai.com.
