Data centers in Suffolk County, Massachusetts: 1 project mapped

Imagery: Esri, Maxar

No new data center has been proposed in Boston, and City Councilor Miniard Culpepper wants to keep it that way. At the council's September 16, 2026 meeting he filed a zoning change that would ban new data centers anywhere in the city, including ones for artificial intelligence, cryptocurrency and cloud computing. It needs the Boston Zoning Commission's approval before it can take effect.

"Boston's density, scarcity of developable land and existing demands on our infrastructure make large-scale data centers incompatible with the direction we should be taking as a city," Culpepper told the council. Existing data centers could keep running but not expand. Among them is Markley Group's building in Downtown Crossing, open since 1998, which runs on 30 megawatts of power, about enough for 30,000 households. Businesses, phone companies and research labs could still run the servers they need.

The proposal follows an order Gov. Maura Healey signed on September 8 requiring any data center using more than 25 megawatts to win a community benefits agreement from its host city before state permits can go ahead. "Unless a community says yes to a data center, we're saying no," Healey said.

Every project above is drawn from public records, filings and local reporting. Each row links to what it is based on. Statuses change, so check the source date before you rely on one. Found something wrong? Write to [email protected] and it gets fixed.