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Even when they\u2019re headquartered elsewhere within the Seattle space moderately than town correct, Microsoft and Amazon are two colossal tech corporations famously pouring umpteen zillion {dollars} per second into AI compute. Nonetheless, on Tuesday, Seattle handed a one-year ban<\/a> on massive knowledge facilities.<\/p>\n In April, the Seattle Occasions reported<\/a> that town\u2019s electrical utility, Seattle Metropolis Gentle, was going through a knowledge heart drawback: 4 thriller corporations had been starting work on 5 separate massive knowledge heart tasks that may have drawn energy from the Seattle grid\u2014sucking up 369 megawatts in a metropolis with solely a few gigawatt of capability. A Seattle Metropolis Gentle consultant, Andy Robust, informed the Occasions, \u201cWe solely have so many engineers. We solely have so many venture managers,\u201d and added, \u201cIt\u2019s going to have an effect.\u201d<\/p>\n In line with a narrative final week within the Guardian<\/a>, the information alarmed Seattle Mayor Katie Wilson, who informed that paper, \u201cThat was the primary that I, because the mayor, had heard about this.\u201d She and town council reportedly acquired 10,000 pro-moratorium emails from residents, and \u201chad been pleased to maneuver towards a moratorium, particularly understanding that there was actually robust public assist on the market for that plan of action.\u201d<\/p>\n The Guardian additionally claims that Seattle is the most important metropolis to this point to move such a measure. In line with a web site known as U.S. Knowledge Heart Moratorium Tracker<\/a> (which, it must be famous, is a venture of the hedge fund Interconnected Capital) there have been 111 native knowledge heart moratoria, and 77 are at present energetic.<\/p>\n