Seattle, home to Amazon and Microsoft, poised to pass moratorium on new datacenters

Measure expected to pass next week represents major rebuke to big tech as local disquiet over AI boom grows

Seattle’s city government is on the verge of passing a year-long ban on the construction of new datacenters, the largest city yet in the US to consider such a moratorium as nationwide backlash grows.

Four companies sought to build five large datacenters in areas serviced by Seattle’s public utility; if approved, they would have consumed approximately a third of the city’s current daily demand for electricity.