Supporters of a permanent data center ban, including members of Kshama Sawant’s congressional campaign, hold signs reading “Stop the Data Centers & AI Layoffs” during public comment at Tuesday’s Seattle City Council meeting. (Screenshot via Seattle Channel)
The city that gave the world cloud computing just hit pause on the machines that power it.
The Seattle City Council voted unanimously Tuesday to impose a one-year emergency moratorium on new large data centers inside the city limits, responding to concerns about the implications of AI for the city’s power grid, water supply, utility rates, and economy.
The moratorium would take effect as soon as Mayor Katie Wilson signs it, temporarily halting projects like several large data centers that companies have approached Seattle City Light about building in the city. Those projects reportedly had a combined peak demand equal to about a third of Seattle’s average daily power consumption.
“This is Seattle’s position on AI and data centers,” said Councilmember Debora Juarez, who sponsored the council’s resolution on data center policy. She drew cheers from the audience at the meeting when she said she would halt AI and data center development entirely if she could.
It’s a major statement in a region that’s home to Amazon Web Services and Microsoft Azure, as well as engineering centers for Google, Oracle, Meta and other companies collectively spending hundreds of billions of dollars on data centers globally to meet demand for AI.
The moratorium puts Seattle among the largest U.S. cities to halt the industry’s buildout, joining Minneapolis, Denver, Baltimore, and Indianapolis in a wave of local pushback.
The council approved two measures: an ordinance halting applications for data centers with electrical capacity of more than 20 megavolt-amperes — enough power for thousands of homes — and a resolution committing the city to study their impacts as a precursor to permanent regulations.
The vote followed weeks of escalating public pressure. More than 50 people testified Tuesday, and not one spoke in favor of data centers. Many argued the moratorium doesn’t go far enough, calling for a permanent ban. Councilmembers said they received more than 98,000 emails on the issue.
Some of the most pointed testimony came from inside the industry.
Members of Amazon Employees for Climate Justice, who also testified at two meetings last week, urged the council to add renewable energy requirements and labor protections, and called for an end to what one AECJ member called the industry’s race “to build out as much compute capacity as they can, as fast as they can, before regulations can catch up.”
“It’s great to see this council choose to empower ordinary people and workers over those who see them as expendable,” said Srija Nagireddy, an AECJ member, citing layoffs this year at Amazon and Meta amid record earnings.
Councilmember Bob Kettle offered the closest thing to a defense of the facilities, distinguishing hyperscale projects from what he called “traditional data centers” — including one downtown that he said heats a half-dozen nearby buildings and supports the city’s first responders. His amendment to the resolution, adopted unanimously, specified that AI is driving demand for “hyperscale” facilities, and added the reliance of government, healthcare, and education on existing data centers to the city’s study list.
Notably, neither Amazon nor Microsoft operates data centers in Seattle itself. Kettle pointed out during the meeting that Amazon’s facilities cluster in Oregon, while Microsoft’s data center presence in the state is in Quincy, the central Washington town transformed by cheap Columbia River hydropower. That means the moratorium’s immediate effect falls on data center developers rather than the tech giants.
The ordinance exempts the roughly 30 smaller data centers already operating in Seattle, allowing each to expand by up to another 20 megavolt-amperes, which is the same amount as the threshold of the moratorium on new facilities.
Mayor Wilson, who first floated the idea of a moratorium in April, is expected to sign the legislation. City departments would then develop permanent data center regulations, with zoning legislation expected to reach the council by early 2027.
The fate of one project — Digital Realty’s proposed facility at 301 Virginia St., filed 11 days before the vote — remains unclear. Whether the moratorium can halt an application already in the pipeline is likely a question for permitting officials and possibly the courts.
