Project Ruby data center, Box Springs, Georgia

Project Ruby is a proposed $5.18 billion data center campus that Choose Columbus, the marketing arm of the Development Authority of Columbus, wants to build on 865 acres in Upatoi, near Box Springs in northeast Muscogee County, Georgia. Habitat Real Estate Partners bought the land, and WRBL reported that Atlas Development, which also has data center sites in Rome, Villa Rica and Temple, is involved too; the campus is planned for construction between 2027 and 2030. The developers have asked Flint Energies for a 600 megawatt grid connection, more power than all of Columbus now uses.

Residents packed a town hall organized by Clean Energy Columbus on March 8, 2026, where resident Shaun Tarkington said he was against the project because "they're extremely loud ... and they have to compete for power." He asked why residents "have to compete with something that drives up our prices for water and electricity during a recession ... and we still haven't seen the hard data." Columbus Water Works said it can draw the water the project needs from the Chattahoochee River but lacks the pipes to deliver it, and its wastewater plant has had no major upgrade since the 1960s.

Clean Energy Columbus asked the city for a moratorium on the project until it set standards for power use, cooling, water and tax breaks. On June 16, 2026 the Columbus Council instead voted 6-2 to create a technology overlay district, with a 500-foot buffer, noise limits of 55 to 75 decibels depending on the time of day, on-site water pre-treatment and Tier IV diesel generators. Councilor Joanne Cogle, who voted no, said: "This is a premature thing, and I'm not completely satisfied the enforcement will protect citizens." "This is a tool," said Mayor Pro Tem Gary Allen. "We have no applications (for a data center)."

Project Ruby can be built only if it meets the new ordinance and the council approves the developer's rezoning request, which had not been filed as of the June 16 vote; no update has been published since.