A proposed artificial intelligence (AI) datacenter in Imperial County, California, has been halted by a county judge's ruling. The project, spearheaded by Sebastian Rucci, cannot proceed until it completes an extensive environmental review.
Rucci, a 66-year-old lawyer, began plotting the nearly 1m-square-foot facility in late 2024, aiming to build the largest AI datacenter in California. He reportedly invested approximately $5m in the project.
Emails between Rucci and county agencies suggested Google's interest as a potential tenant, with Rucci writing in July that the datacenter would "enable Google to conduct artificial intelligence and large language model training for its Gemini system." However, a Google spokesperson stated, "We are not involved in a datacenter project in Imperial county."
The project faced significant community resistance, including multiple lawsuits and recall efforts against local officials who supported it. Residents expressed concerns about increased emissions, harm to wildlife, strain on the power grid, dwindling water supply, and noise issues.