The frontier is where hard things get done in unforgiving conditions. Today that ethos is enabling North Dakota to be the place where autonomous drones get tested, where a billion cubic feet of Bakken gas gets moved east to power a data center cluster, and where the future of farming is being pioneered.
Governor Kelly Armstrong joined the Standard & Works Show to make the case for why capital belongs here.
Zach Silber
Founder and Editor-in-Chief
Standard & Works
1. 🏦 The Bank
Photo by Bank of North Dakota
No other state has a tool like the Bank of North Dakota to get deals done. Take the story of the Bakken East pipeline:
The project will move natural gas from the Bakken fields in western North Dakota to power generators and data center operators in the east, where demand is growing fast.
Using the bank, the state bought capacity on the pipeline that gave the project developer the confidence to move forward.
"I can't build the last mile of pipe if I don't build the first mile of pipe," Armstrong said.
The bank also supports the broader state economy:
In growing communities where it costs $400,000 to build a house that appraises at $300,000, the bank fills the gap through a housing program that was expanded last legislative session.
It's also running $500M in farm disaster relief this cycle, working through local banks to keep the agricultural base stable while new industries take hold.
“‘There are ten examples a week where [the bank] becomes really important,” Armstrong said.
2. 🟩 The Operating Environment
Photo by Standard & Works
"A rectangle inside a rectangle" is how Armstrong starts to describe the physical advantage of doing business in North Dakota – clean transportation lines in every direction, no bottlenecks or geographic constraints moving resources in or out.
The climate compounds it.
"Cold and windy isn't usually a selling point," Armstrong said. "Turns out it is for AI factories."
Those assets only matter if the state can move at the speed business requires – and Armstrong insists that it can.
“ We can go from zero to finish faster at a regulatory level. I'll put us up against any other state, any other regulatory entity, in the country.”
"People don't say no here. They want to figure out a way to get to yes,” he adds.
3. 🏛️ The D.C. Bench
Interior Secretary Burgum at CERAWeek | Photo by Standard & Works
Before becoming governor, Armstrong represented the entire state of North Dakota in Washington, occupying the state's sole at-large congressional district.
Six years in Congress gave him a working knowledge of how the federal government actually moves, he says.
North Dakota’s current bench of leaders shares that statewide perspective.
Doug Burgum, former North Dakota governor, is now Interior Secretary.
John Hoeven, also a former governor, sits in the Senate.
Senator Kevin Cramer and Congresswoman Julie Fedorchak both served on the state Public Service Commission, regulating statewide utilities, before arriving in Washington.
Armstrong says the result is a working relationship between Bismarck and Washington where the people on both ends of the phone already understand the terrain. On energy, the alignment runs especially deep.
"We're part of the solution, not part of the problem. And having an administration and people like Secretary Burgum out there that understand that is really, really beneficial to our state.”
4. 🚜 The Cluster Effect
USAF Photo
Federal backing of autonomous systems – especially around defense – is accelerating, and North Dakota is positioned to capitalize on the trend, both in the air and on the ground.
Grand Sky, located on Grand Forks Air Force Base, is America's first commercial UAS business and aviation park, with Northrop Grumman and General Atomics among its tenants.
North Dakota is the only state with statewide UAS testing capability, built on a working relationship with the FAA that has opened access to data supporting the state's unique Vantis radar system and beyond-visual-line-of-sight flights through the Northern Plains UAS Test Site.
The University of North Dakota sits a few miles from the base and is a key collaborator in UAS research and talent development.
Its president, Dr. Andrew Armacost, is a former Brigadier General who spent 30 years on active duty and served as Dean of the Faculty at the U.S. Air Force Academy – a background that shapes how UND and Grand Forks Air Force Base work together in practice.
"We know how to break down the silos better than anybody else,” Armstrong says.
In Fargo, Grand Farm is an AgTech innovation campus that Armstrong argues is poised to be the proving ground for autonomous vehicles. The advantages of testing on a farm: a controlled environment, faster iteration cycle, and manageable risk.
"We'll solve autonomous vehicles in a pasture in the Red River Valley way before we ever solve it on a highway in Florida."
5. 👷 Workforce
Armstrong visits an ExxonMobil oil rig on May 11, 2026 | Governor’s Office Photo
North Dakota is still a state of 800,000 people, but Armstrong points to several pillars that signal real workforce depth.
Armstrong gives a direct nod to his predecessor Doug Burgum for building the state's career and technical education infrastructure. Burgum funded 13 career academy projects across the state, committing more than $88 million and using the Bank of North Dakota to advance federal funds when Treasury delayed their release.
Those academies connect high schoolers to careers spanning healthcare, engineering, and construction trades – pathways that, as Armstrong describes them, produce business owners by 30 without student debt.
The state’s workforce foundation runs even deeper.
When the oil boom tightened the labor market in 2010, contractors started hiring people coming out of prison because there was no other option. It worked, and those reentry programs into the trades are now embedded infrastructure.
For a company evaluating a North Dakota site, the workforce track record is one of building solutions under pressure and having them hold – a meaningful data point in any long-term capital decision.
📈 Open for Business
We closed our conversation by asking Armstrong what people should know about North Dakota. His pitch:
"We've got communities all across the state. We have great schools, and we have as hard a work ethic as anybody on the planet. You're looking to do something and you want to make it happen fast and come into a community that will welcome you with open arms. We are here and we are open for business."
🎙 Listen on Spotify: Governor Armstrong joins the Standard & Works Show
