THE HAGUE, Netherlands — Protesters breached a construction site for a new Microsoft data center in Amsterdam on Friday, with demonstrators scaling a crane and igniting flares while others confronted police.
Nathan Timmer, representing the protest group Geef Tegengas (Push Back), told local broadcaster AT5 that activists occupied the site to halt construction.
The action coincides with coordinated demonstrations across Europe on Friday and Saturday, as campaigners in 15 countries demand a moratorium on large-scale data center developments. Organizers cite mounting social and environmental concerns over the facilities’ massive energy and water consumption.
“We don’t want it built. Nobody needs it,” Timmer said. “The only thing this will be used for is AI slop — AI warfare, data surveillance, and enabling genocides. We don’t want that,” he added, pledging to continue protests until construction stops.
Pro-Palestinian activists also participated in the Amsterdam demonstration. By late afternoon, police were escorting activists from the site, though some remained, according to local media reports.
Microsoft acknowledged the protest in a statement: “We understand that people feel strongly about the project, and we respect their right to express those views peacefully. However, we do not condone any actions that are unlawful or that put people’s safety at risk.”
The European demonstrations follow growing global resistance to data center expansion. In the United States, recent elections brought in lawmakers promising stricter oversight of the industry.
Dozens of civil society and grassroots organizations are participating in “Stop Dirty Data Centres” events across 15 European nations, including Ireland, Poland, Denmark, Finland, Spain, Italy, the Netherlands, France, and the United Kingdom.
“There’s a gulf between where elected leaders are in terms of buying into the hype about AI and where people are,” said Owen Espley, coordinator of StopDirtyDataCentres.eu.
In Germany, approximately a dozen protesters gathered outside a data center on Berlin’s outskirts. “We want to put a stop to this blind construction of data centers around Germany, regardless of any environmental concerns,” said spokesperson Caro Weber. “This is really, really dangerous for our future.”
Around 100 people demonstrated outside the Polish parliament in Warsaw, representing communities near planned facilities.
Italy’s rapidly expanding data center industry faces equally swift grassroots opposition, concentrated in the northern Lombardy region — the country’s primary digital infrastructure hub. Activists argue that development for cloud computing and artificial intelligence is outpacing public consultation and environmental oversight.
The movement reached a milestone on October 10, when more than 1,000 people and representatives from roughly 40 local committees gathered in Milan’s Piazza della Scala for what organizers called Italy’s first national demonstration against data centers. Protesters demanded a moratorium on new projects and a national strategy governing industry growth, following increasingly large mobilizations in towns around Milan.
Europe is projected to attract $5.6 trillion in cumulative data center capital expenditure from 2026 through 2050, accounting for approximately 18% of global investment, according to PwC’s Global Data Centre Outlook 2026–50. The United States is forecast to draw $15.1 trillion during the same period.