In Birmingham, the data center controversy has centered on the Oxmoor Valley neighborhood. That’s where tech company Nebius is building a hyperscale data center. They’re projected to spend nearly $36 billion over 30 years on the project. City leaders say the facility will bring in millions for public services, but the project faces multiple lawsuits.
WBHM’s Andrew Gelderman spoke with Nebius spokesperson Leah Davis.
This interview was edited for length and clarity.
For many folks, they had never really heard about Nebius before hearing about this planned development. What is Nebius, what does the company do?
We are an AI cloud stack company. Essentially what that means in simple terms, a customer — so let's say for UAB, for instance — if they wanted to develop their own AI model in order to do research or anything related to their business, they would come be a customer of ours and they would be able to create that model on our software, on our platform. We service a lot of health care, research companies, and AI startups that focus on life sciences. We have people who are trying to find the cure for Alzheimer's and are able to diagnose it quicker because of the research that they're doing on our platform. We also have customers like Meta, Microsoft and other major universities like Stanford and Harvard.
The development in Oxmoor specifically is a self-described AI factory. Can you tell me exactly what that means and what the site will do?
If you think of your office server room, or when you were in college if you ever saw a server room, that's essentially what this is. It's what we call computer chips. They're stacked on top of each other, but what really happens on the servers is where we're operating our platform and where people are able to create their AI models. I think beyond the building though, beyond the actual site development, what we really care about is making sure that the benefits of the project not only benefit us, but that they benefit the community and that we are able to create lasting opportunities for generations to come.
Talk me through the timeline of the project. How did we get here? When did Nebius first approach the city? When did you apply for a permit? When did reach out to the mayor's office?
We purchased the property at the very end of September, early October. Since then, we worked with community and elected officials to make sure that they understood the project, to see what the needs were as we developed our community benefits plan. We engaged with the neighborhood over several community meetings and virtual town halls and we're continuing to do that today.
There is a perception out there that Nebius rushed approval for the project before the city's moratorium on data center developments went into effect. I was wondering if you could address that. How would you respond to that?
Yeah, I appreciate the question. We followed every normal and legal procedure of any other economic development project that happens in the city of Birmingham.
Many people hear artificial intelligence and worry about many aspects of the future, whether it be job security or otherwise. What's it been like navigating those conversations when people voice that fear to you?
I think anytime we as a community come up upon something that can be unknown, I understand the fear and I get it. Our job is to teach people how to use this tool and how to demystify it and how to make sure particularly that our children in the next generation, you know, that they are educated about it and know how to use it. We are not a company that firmly believes in the doom and gloom of AI. That's kind of the narrative out there. We are hiring people every day on some aspects of our company where we're growing. We firmly believe that AI can enhance and it can be incorporated and it can make our everyday lives just a little bit better.
With any project this big, naturally there are a lot of concerns that have popped up from the community, and I'd like to take some time to go through a few of them, starting off with noise. Residents are worried about noise from construction, but also noise from the facility once it's up and running. How do you address that?
What I want people to understand and what I want people to know is that we've taken in so many considerations on the front end. And so Nebius, I think, is really different from other players in the industry because we really care about the community and we want to make sure that our facility is not a burden on our neighbors and that no one has to bear the brunt of what it takes to make our facility operate. This is our facility and it's our job and our duty to operate it responsibly. So it doesn't disrupt the community.
So with noise, we had a sound study conducted and we built this facility to the absolute worst condition that can happen. So if it is 104 degrees in Alabama, you should not be able to hear our facility above the background noise that's already out there.
We've gotten listener questions before about the sound study and background noise. I think one of the largest questions we've got has to do with the proposed Greater Birmingham Humane Society medical campus right down the street. Animals, dogs, and cats' ears are more sensitive than humans. Does the sound-study account for that? How are we expecting the noise on site to impact animals in the area?
I appreciate your question and I do want to be careful because there is some litigation happening with the humane society, but what I want people to know is that we designed this facility responsibly. We wanted to make sure that it would not disrupt our neighbors and we care about being a partner with the community.
I do want to touch on utilities as well. There's a large fear around the energy consumption from the site and worries from local residents that utility bills will increase due to this. This is something that Nebius has said will not happen, but I was wondering what sort of assurances or guarantees Nebius can provide?
I really want people to understand that this is a Nebius facility and it is not up to anyone else, not to a family, not to a small business, to bear the burden of what it takes to make our facility operate. We are paying for the full cost of power infrastructure, so whatever it takes to deliver power to our facility down to the nuts and bolts and the screws, we're paying for it.
One of the things that I've heard the most about, whether it be at a city council meeting or talking to somebody, is a perceived lack of transparency. There are some Oxmoor residents who have expressed frustration with Nebius and the city of Birmingham feeling as they heard about the project after it had already been approved and once it was too late to make any of their opinions heard. What do you say to residents who feel like they've been blindsided by the development?
You know, from day one, since we got here, we interacted with elected officials and community leaders, we took feedback. We have an open line of communication with the community.
I'd be remiss if I didn't mention lawsuits. Nebius currently faces multiple lawsuits, including one from residents in the area, one from the Greater Birmingham Humane Society that you touched on earlier. They claim that Nebius and the city of Birmingham broke zoning laws in approving the project. I understand that it's typical policy to not comment on ongoing litigation, but what can you tell me about these lawsuits and the accusations at their core?
Like you mentioned, we don't want to discuss specifics of the case and litigation. I'm not an attorney. My job is to make sure that the community is informed about our project. On that note though, we do believe that we have followed every legal and valid process. We believe that the evidence shows that.
And this is my last question. This is surrounding fears that these huge investments into AI data centers are a bubble that'll eventually pop. Nebius has 30 years of tax abatements. What assurances do you have that Nebius is going to be around for the next 30 years?
I think Birmingham has a right to have that fear. Again, we want to make sure that our facility, our operations, or our business is a burden on anyone in the community. That means that staying in continuous partnership with the community, with making sure that we're in compliance on all levels, like we've done up until this point. I think we care about our investment and we want to see it through. Not only with our investment in the building, but we care about our investment outside of the building. So how we are working with the school systems and the educational institutions on resources to make sure that our workforce can survive and thrive in this AI economy. That's something that we think will have a lasting impact beyond the 30 years.
