Seattle council pauses new data centers amid Amazon AI spend

Amazon engineers have publicly criticized their company's aggressive investment in artificial intelligence infrastructure, highlighting a stark contrast with recent large-scale corporate layoffs. The criticism came during a Seattle City Council committee hearing on Wednesday, where officials unanimously approved a one-year moratorium on new large-scale data center construction within the city limits.

The moratorium, advanced by the Land Use and Sustainability Committee, is intended to give the city time to study the potential impacts of such facilities on local infrastructure, utilities, public health, and the economy. The measure now moves to the full council for consideration. The action follows proposals from developers to build five large-scale data center complexes in the area, which city officials said could require up to 369 megawatts of electricity—enough to power approximately 300,000 homes. Two of those proposals were later withdrawn following public opposition.

At the hearing, Amazon software engineer Patrick Schloesser told officials that the company plans to spend $200 billion on capital expenditures this year, with much of it directed toward AI infrastructure and...