Seattle poised to ban new datacenters in blow to big tech hub

Measure in Amazon and Microsoft's backyard expected to succeed next week in blow to big tech amid AI boom

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.