New Hill Digital Campus data center, New Hill, North Carolina

On March 5, 2026, Natelli Investments withdrew its applications for the New Hill Digital Campus, a 250 megawatt data center planned next to Duke Energy's Shearon Harris nuclear plant in the New Hill area of unincorporated Wake County, North Carolina, near Apex. The company cited the town of Apex's unfinished zoning changes needed to allow data centers. The plan called for six buildings up to 70 feet tall and about 80 generators of three megawatts each on 189 acres of farmland off Old US Highway 1.

Natelli had filed for annexation, rezoning and a land use amendment with Apex, arguing the property was already marked for industrial use on the town's 2019 land use map. Executive vice president Michael Natelli said: "Data Storage Facilities are modest users of public facilities. Not only do they generate far less traffic than residential communities, but they create high-wage technology jobs and strengthen the technology eco-system in their region." The company said cooling would use recirculating non-potable water and that power would come off Duke Energy's grid without straining the town's supply.

More than 100 residents wore red shirts to an Apex town council meeting, and an online petition against the project gathered nearly 2,000 signatures in two weeks. Doug Stewart, of the Jordan Pointe community, told the council: "Just like this birdhouse here, our community is handcrafted. It's imperfect, but it's also built to last, just like our town is." Neighbors formed the Protect Wake County Coalition over concerns about water, diesel fumes and who would pay for infrastructure. US Representative Valerie Foushee said: "Plainly, I don't support a new data center in the heart of our district."

After the withdrawal, campaigner Melissa Ripper said: "We thought we had, probably, another six [or] eight months of trying to push back." Apex council member Terry Mahaffey said he would bring a motion on March 10, 2026 for a one-year moratorium on data center applications, permits and construction, to "finish the work that we started" on the town's development rules. No result of that vote has been published. Wake County adopted its own year-long data center moratorium in June 2026, which covers the unincorporated area where the site sits.