The Memphis City Council voted Tuesday to reject an 18-month moratorium on new data center construction and expansions, with the measure failing in a 6-6 tie. Council Member JB Smiley Jr., who sponsored the ordinance, said he proposed it after learning through social media that SpaceXAI, which operates the Colossus supercomputer facility in southwest Memphis, was planning an expansion. Council Member Jerri Green said the council had failed citizens who had been pushing for the moratorium for over a year. The vote followed a chaotic October 6 meeting that ended with protesters using a megaphone on the chamber floor and two women exchanging blows in the lobby.
The failed vote leaves Memphis without new regulatory guardrails even as SpaceXAI continues to expand facilities in the area, including gas-powered turbines that the NAACP has sued over under the Clean Air Act. The outcome illustrates how evenly divided local governments can be when confronted with large AI infrastructure projects, a dynamic that has direct consequences for permit timelines and community oversight across cities hosting similar developments.
CNN and CBS News both cover Memphis leaders rejecting a longer moratorium and passing a shorter-term ban instead; this is a distinct follow-on development from the already-published Memphis moratorium rejection story, with CNN providing the most detail on the policy outcome. 1 similar article covering this event was reviewed but not selected.