Did any major data centers want to locate in Maine, or is this just an empty gesture?

I think legislation like this is much more about making sure that they're never even considered by the big AI companies. OpenAI and Anthropic, when looking to build a new center, will see that there would be headaches trying to get a datacenter built, so they instead just focus on one of the other 49 states.

I think they're playing it safe. Data centers are at their peak of their hype cycle and it totally makes sense for Maine to place a temporary moratorium (it expires Nov. 2027) on new centers until the industry is a bit more stable

Empty ? Why call it that? It's proactive.

Also it's naive to think they announce their intention to move somewhere. They try to cover it and never tell a soul until it's a done deal.