Top NYC business group opposes Gov. Hochuls one-year data center ban

New York City’s top business advocacy group slammed Gov.Kathy Hochul’s one-year ban on new construction of high-powered data centers in the state, calling it counterproductive and anti-commerce.Hochul signed an executive order last week enacting a one-year statewide moratorium on new “hyperscale” data centers that need at least 50 megawatts of power to run on, arguing the delay was needed for the state to introduce the centers with care.But Steve Fulop, CEO of the Partnership for the City of New York — which represents the largest 300 firms in the city, including those from Wall Street and the broader financial services industry — said the move would leave New York behind other states in the AI boom.

“Ultimately, the solution is going to be whether data centers get built or they don’t get built,” Fulop said Sunday on 77 WABC’s “Cats Roundtable” program.“The signal when you put a moratorium on this sort of stuff … is that it becomes a riskier proposition to put your money into New York versus maybe another state,” he told host John Catsimatidis.He continued, “It sends a signal about our competitiveness to the private sector.Other states like Pennsylvania … continue to grow, and they haven’t put a moratorium on [data centers].

They work with the communities to find solutions.But they recognize that data centers are important.”Data centers house thousands of servers, storage drives, and networking equipment used to store, process, and distribute digital information.Fulop noted that when you seek information on a mobile phone or stream a show, you are interacting with a data center.“We need more access to data,” he said.“A one-year moratorium accomplishes nothing.

A one-year procrastination or delay doesn’t solve anything.”New York City also wants to be a leader in emerging artificial intelligence, and supporters say data centers are needed to accomplish that.The governor defended her one-year freeze — which immedia...