Rubix Data Center, Westwood, Kentucky

Rubix Data Centers, a subsidiary of Barcelona's Submer Group, wants to build a 2-gigawatt data center at the former AK Steel mill in the Westwood area and has agreed to buy the 500-acre site from Cleveland-Cliffs for $55 million. Most of it is in Russell, with the rest in Boyd County and Ashland. Russell's council imposed a six-month moratorium on data centers in June 2026; Rubix needs it lifted by August 31 to close the sale, and it was still in place heading into the August 27 meeting, with no outcome published yet.

About 100 residents, including the full Russell council, attended a nearly three-hour town hall on July 21. Chris Honstain of Gateway City Energy said the first 155 megawatts could run by November 2027 through Kentucky Power, and that Rubix would pay Russell about $70 million a year in property tax at full operation. The company's written answers to the council put total local property tax nearer $40 million a year. Councilman Ryan Biederman said he would not lift the moratorium until residents told him they wanted it.

A week later, at a meeting devoted to public comment, mill veteran Ken Smith said the projected noise falls well short of what the steel plant once produced. Resident Jack Patterson said, "If you decide no, we don't want these people here, then I don't know who we will get to clean up that site at AK Steel." Bren Martin worried Kentucky Power would raise rates and blame data centers, and Harry Rudolph, calling himself "not against it and not for it," asked what guarantee the company's promises carried.

Boyd County finalized its own 180-day moratorium the day of the town hall, and Judge-Executive Eric Chaney said he had had "zero conversations with Rubix." Ashland's planning commission has recommended zoning that would leave only 20 acres of the wider site open to data centers. Unlike TeraWulf's nearby 1-gigawatt EastPark project, announced in May under a nondisclosure agreement, Honstain said there were no such agreements this time.