AIBRIEFPODCAST
Three U.S. cities restricted data centers in 60 days. One Wall Street analyst calls that the AI buildout's biggest risk — bigger than chip supply.
On a Tuesday night in Fort Worth this month, the city council voted 10-1 to add new rules for the next data center that wants to plug into the Texas grid. Three months earlier in Seattle, the council had passed a six-month emergency moratorium on large data centers. In Salem, Oregon, a special meeting in early August produced another unanimous pause.
The pattern is the story. Three U.S. cities have moved in roughly 60 days from background zoning fights to explicit restrictions on the buildings behind the AI buildout.
Seattle's June 9 emergency moratorium targets facilities drawing more than 20 megavolt-amperes, with a possible six-month extension. Fort Worth's Aug. 12 vote adds developer submission rules, including grid-connection approvals from PUCT and ERCOT and air-quality permitting through TCEQ, ahead of a 90-day moratorium taking effect early next year. Salem's Aug. 3 pause is unanimous, though local reporting flags it may not reach the project that prompted it.
On a recent podcast, Dan Ives, who left Wedbush after eight years to co-found Yorkville Ives, called local friction the single biggest risk to the AI buildout. He pegs chip-supply equilibrium at 2028 or early 2029; the council votes move in weeks.
What remains unknown: whether the moratoria spread to a city large enough to shift hyperscaler siting, and whether state preemption like Texas's developer rules blunts or sharpens that pressure.