An Alabama animal shelter is taking on a massive AI data center project in court

An Alabama animal shelter is barking back against a massive AI data center that's under construction next to its planned veterinary hospital campus in Birmingham.

The Greater Birmingham Humane Society filed a lawsuit earlier this month in a bid to block the project, alleging that the city of Birmingham, AL, and developers engaged in a "months-long scheme" to greenlight it by sidestepping zoning rules.

The lawsuit, filed in Jefferson County Circuit Court, says that the four-month review for building permits for the more than $2 billion facility moved at "lightning speed" compared with the 18-month review for the nonprofits' planned $67 million campus.

Entities of Nebius Group, the Amsterdam-headquartered AI infrastructure company behind the data center project, "coordinated" with the city to "abuse legal processes and manipulate timelines to fast-track a favored project without due process, regard for the law, or public welfare," the lawsuit alleges.

A Nebius spokesperson told Business Insider that the project was "permitted lawfully in this commercial district and Nebius has followed the same rules that apply to everyone else in Birmingham."

"The facility has also been thoughtfully designed and responsibly developed with measures including acoustical sound walls, grid power, and closed-loop cooling, among other areas," the spokesperson said.

A spokesperson for the city of Birmingham said the city does not comment on ongoing litigation.

The humane society's lawsuit says that the organization previously notified the city and its zoning board that the data center project "could deprive" it "of the planned use of its property because of noise that may interfere with its operations and be harmful to animals and humans."

The data center is being built about 160 feet from the property line of GBHS's future animal welfare campus, which is expected to include an adoption center, outdoor rehabilitation areas, and foster facilities, the nonprofit said.

"This case is not about whether data centers should exist," Allison Black Cornelius, the president and CEO of the GBHS, said in a statement. "It is about whether a project of this size and character should move forward in this location without the legal questions surrounding its approval first being resolved."

Cornelius added, "We believe neighboring institutions, nonprofit organizations, residents, and the broader community deserve confidence that the applicable laws and procedures have been followed."

Nebius' data center has also drawn separate legal action from area residents, according to local media reports.

The pushback comes amid growing community opposition to AI data center projects nationwide, driven by concerns about their environmental and economic impacts.

According to the research project Data Center Watch, at least 75 data center proposals worth an estimated $130 billion were delayed or blocked during the first three months of 2026 because of local opposition.

As of May, there were at least 430 local Facebook groups with more than 525,000 members fighting back against AI data centers, according to the Data Center Opposition Report, which tracks local opposition to the projects.