About

What we're doing

We are piloting a pilot-scale public AI compute facility in Maine that repurposes an underutilized site to deliver affordable AI services for local Maine companies, communities, and residents.

The pilot includes:

• A micro data center (roughly 8–16 GPUs)
• Open, auditable AI models
• Subsidized access for Maine residents and companies through chat, API, and agentic tooling
• Prepaid, usage-capped access for local services and public-interest use cases
• Community-based governance
• A defined sunset: evaluate, scale, or shut down after 12–18 months

Why it matters

Across the United States, community resistance is increasingly blocking large AI and data-center developments. At the same time, municipalities often default to closed, vendor-locked AI services governed outside the public interest—locking in long-term costs and opaque data practices that return little value to residents.

A publicly governed infrastructure pilot in Maine addresses both: local or municipal ownership of a physical data-center asset, paired with an explicit public-services carveout so benefits accrue to residents rather than distant private platforms. This is a replicable pattern; Maine can lead the way.

Want to brief your local officials? Email us for talking points.

Current progress

We have identified an existing brownfield infrastructure site with dark fiber and an interested tenant, and are ready to break ground by summer. We have engaged stakeholders connected to the Maine Connectivity Authority (MCA), with active involvement from Bernstein Shur and key Maine business and infrastructure leaders. A clear funding pathway has been identified, combining MCA's Digital Opportunity Fund with federal and state New Markets Tax Credits to support community-benefit, non-hyperscale infrastructure.

If you're a funder or institutional partner and want to support the pilot, contact us about funding or co-investment.

Team

• Joshua Tan — Product and strategy lead at Public AI; background in AI systems, governance, and public-interest digital infrastructure.
• Matthew Victor — Technology and infrastructure attorney at Bernstein Shur; deep experience in Maine politics, public-sector projects, and complex multi-stakeholder deals.
• Ben Polsky — Infrastructure and technology strategist at Stanford; focuses on aligning new technology deployments with institutional and public-sector stakeholders.
• Richard Qualey — Energy and environmental law attorney at Bernstein Shur; native of northern Maine with deep regional knowledge.
• Tom Law — Founder and CEO of Oak AI, a Maine-based startup focused on applied AI systems.
• Kerem Durdag (advisor) — Longtime builder of public and cooperative internet infrastructure; former CEO of a Maine-based B Corp delivering public internet services.

Contact

For general inquiries: info@publicai.network.

For funders and investment inquiries, please use the same address with the subject line “Investor inquiry”.