>>25063812

>>25063931

muh conspiracy theories

I dug further into ASU/Arizona Board of Regents records and foundation filings. There is not a single publicly available document that appears to disclose every dollar ever donated to the Kyl Center, but I can identify the following funding that is publicly documented.

### Publicly documented Kyl Center funding

| Funder | Amount publicly identified | Period | Purpose / project |

| - | - | - | - |

| Morrison family | $1,000,000 | 2014 | Founding gift that established the Kyl Center for Water Policy. ASU News+1 |

| Arizona Community Foundation | $50,000 | 2015–2016 | Kyl Center Leadership Roundtable. ASU/Arizona Board of Regents records identify ACF as the funder and give the exact amount. Arizona Board of Regents+1 |

| Walton Family Foundation | $150,000 | 2021 | Support for ASU's Just Energy Transition Center and Kyl Center for Water Policy. The Walton Foundation's Form 990 reports the $150,000 grant to the ASU Foundation. Walton Family Foundation+1 |

| Walton Family Foundation | Amount not publicly established in the sources I found | 2021–2022 | "Assessing Water Savings and Water Rights Best Practices Associated with Coal Plant Closures in the Colorado River Basin." ASU records identify Walton as the funder. Arizona Board of Regents |

| Virginia G. Piper Charitable Trust | Part of $5,000,000 | 2021 onward | Water-security research involving the Kyl Center, Global Futures Laboratory and Decision Center for a Desert City. The $5M was for the broader ASU project, not exclusively the Kyl Center. Morrison Institute for Public Policy+1 |

| Virginia G. Piper Charitable Trust | Amount not publicly established in the sources I found | 2022–2025 | ASU Water Research – Water Moonshot, with Sarah Porter as co-investigator. ASU records identify Piper Trust as funder. Arizona Board of Regents |

| U.S. Department of the Treasury | Amount not publicly established in the sources I found | 2023–2026 | Arizona Water Innovation Initiative. The Kyl Center is listed as a participating ASU unit, with Sarah Porter as co-investigator. Arizona Board of Regents |

### An important distinction

The Arizona Board of Regents' research database currently lists six grants/projects associated with the Kyl Center: one active and five finished. It explicitly identifies the Treasury, Piper Trust and Walton Family Foundation among the funders. Arizona Board of Regents

However, those six research grants are not necessarily the Center's entire funding history. For example, the $1 million Morrison family founding gift and the $50,000 Arizona Community Foundation Leadership Roundtable funding appear in other ASU records. ASU News+1

There are also projects where the Kyl Center is a partner rather than the direct recipient of the money. For example, the $5 million Piper Trust grant was awarded to the broader ASU water-security initiative, so

>>25063812

>>25063931

>>25063955

I checked the three funding sources we discussed, and there is at least one significant, concrete connection to data centers—but the connections are different, and I would not characterize the evidence as showing that the Kyl Center itself is funded by the data-center industry.

### 1. The Morrison family — a direct connection to a data-center development

This is the most notable connection.

The $1 million gift that launched the Kyl Center in 2014 came from the Morrison family. ASU identifies it as a gift from the family, rather than from a corporation. ASU News

Separately, the Morrison family has owned substantial land in the East Valley. In 2019, the City of Mesa approved arrangements involving a Google data center on land being sold by the Morrison family. Contemporary reporting identifies the property as belonging to the longtime Gilbert-area Morrison farming family. KTAR.com+1

A Mesa city document is even more explicit: during discussion of the Google project, a council member thanked the Morrison family for developing the land, in connection with bringing the Google data center to Mesa. MesaAZ Apps

So there is a documented business/land-development connection between the Morrison family and a major data-center project.

Importantly, that does not by itself establish that the Morrison family's Kyl Center donation was intended to benefit Google or data centers, or that the family was acting on behalf of the data-center industry. I haven't found evidence establishing that.

### 2. Virginia G. Piper Charitable Trust — connection is much less direct

Piper Trust provided a $5 million grant to an ASU water-security/climate-resilience project in 2021. The project was led by ASU's Julie Ann Wrigley Global Futures Laboratory and included the Kyl Center. Morrison Institute for Public Policy

I haven't found evidence that Piper Trust itself is a data-center company, investor, developer, or industry advocacy organization. Its stated grantmaking is concentrated on areas such as education, healthcare, children, arts and culture, older adults, and religious organizations in Maricopa County. Virginia Piper+1

There is, however, an interesting subject-matter connection: the Kyl Center's current research explicitly examines data centers and other large water users. Its February 2026 report analyzes data centers alongside semiconductor fabs, power plants, agriculture, turf, and other major water users. Morrison Institute for Public Policy+1

That's a connection to the topic, not evidence of a Piper/data-center financial relationship.

### 3. Arizona Community Foundation — I haven't found a meaningful data-center connection

The Arizona Community Foundation is a broad philanthropic organization that makes grants to nonprofits, educational institutions, tribal entities, government agencies, etc. Arizona Community Foundation

I haven't found evidence in this search tying the Foundation itself to ownership, financing, development, or advocacy for data centers.

The $50,000 grant we previously identified therefore shouldn't be described as data-center-related without additional evidence.

### An important wrinkle

There is a potentially important distinction between funding the Kyl Center and other organizations participating in Arizona's water/data-center ecosystem.

The Kyl Center is now doing substantive work on data centers. For example, it published a 2025 analysis of local ordinances governing large-volume water users that specifically examines restrictions on data centers. Morrison Institute for Public Policy Its 2026 report goes considerably further into the water consumption of data centers. Morrison Institute for Public Policy

And in August 2026, Morrison Institute held a Housing and Water Policy Summit where data centers and their relationship to Arizona's water and electricity demands were explicitly discussed. ASU News

So if your underlying question is "Could there be a financial or institutional relationship between the Kyl Center's funders and the data-center industry that could be relevant when evaluating its research on data centers?", the answer from what I've found so far is:

The Morrison-family connection is real and worth investigating further. The Piper and Arizona Community Foundation connections are not presently supported by comparable evidence.

The next useful step would be to trace the Morrison family's specific entities, land transactions, foundations, corporate affiliations, and the ownership chain of the Google/Mesa property, and then compare those against the Kyl Center's donors and its data-center research. That could establish whether there's merely a historical land connection or a broader financial/business relationship.