$19B North Carolina data center canceled as county weighs moratorium

Plans for a nearly $20 billion data center campus in eastern North Carolina have collapsed, as the developer withdrew its offer for the land and the host county began weighing a two-year moratorium on new data center development.

Energy Storage Solutions, a Robersonville-based LLC, has pulled its bid to buy 28 acres inside the state-backed Kingsboro CSX Select Megasite in Edgecombe County, County Manager Eric Evans told commissioners at a Monday meeting. The board voted to return the developer’s deposit. “That project is officially off board for the public consideration,” Evans said.

Why it matters. The withdrawal marks the second high-profile data center in as many days to fall to local resistance, after Prince William County, Virginia, rejected a 1,940-acre hub. Communities that once competed for hyperscale investment are increasingly pumping the brakes over noise, water use and strain on the grid — a shift that reshapes where the next wave of digital infrastructure can actually get built.

The numbers. The developer had proposed a $19.2 billion data center and energy storage campus built across eight roughly $800 million phases on the 1,700-acre Kingsboro site, one of five shovel-ready properties the state has flagged for large industrial users. Financing and tenants were never disclosed. Edgecombe County, an hour east of Raleigh, has fewer than 50,000 residents and no existing data center base.

What’s next. Commissioners discussed a potential 24-month moratorium on data center development after receiving a petition with 1,362 signatures opposing future projects. The same developer is also suing the Tarboro Town Council over permits for a separate $6.4 billion project nearby. For developers chasing the data center land rush, the message is hardening: entitlement risk, not power or capital, is becoming the binding constraint — and rural sites once seen as easy wins are proving anything but.