Jun 5, 2026
Latest Court Filing Alleges City of Birmingham Helped Nebius Evade Data Center Moratorium
BirminghamWatch is reporting that a new legal filing by plaintiffs in a class-action lawsuit alleges the City of Birmingham helped developers of a proposed AI Mega Factory get around a moratorium on hyperscale data centers.
The Amended Complaint in Greene and Butler v. Nebius, et al. asserts that the developer’s methods of land acquisition and permitting timeline were expressly designed to outrun the looming restrictions and are a part of a coordinated scheme.
The City has maintained that Nebius’ application for regulatory approval was already underway when the moratorium was instated and, thus, they must be “grandfathered” in.
The complaint says that is simply not true.
The legal analysis by BirminghamWatch reveals the City issued its first public notice of its intention to institute a moratorium on December 16, 2025 and Nebius’ permit to build an AI Mega Factory was not applied for until three weeks later, on January 7, 2026.