Kentucky family snubs $26 million offer to convert their farmland into an AI data center — 'they call us old stupid farmers, you know, but we’re not,' says landowner
A Northern Kentucky family has refused an anonymous AI company's $26 million offer to buy their land and transform it into a data center.
In Northern Kentucky, a family of farmers has declined a staggering $26 million offer from an undisclosed AI company to convert a portion of their family-owned land into a data center. Ida Huddleston, the landowner, and her daughter Delsia Bare, shared their objections to the offer. Bare noted that they had cultivated the land for generations, and their ancestors had faced numerous challenges, including the Great Depression.
"They call us old stupid farmers, you know, but we’re not," Huddleston stated. "We know whenever our food is disappearing, our lands are disappearing, and we don’t have any water—and that poison. Well, we know we’ve had it." The AI firm approached the Huddlestons due to the size and location of their 1,200-acre property, seeking to acquire about half of it for a data center project.
The company offered nearly 10 times the local land value for the land. The Huddlestons, however, firmly rejected the offer, emphasizing the importance of their land for their way of life and community. Despite the lucrative offer, the family's stance highlights the growing concerns over data centers' environmental impact, including their energy and water demands.
This decision comes as AI companies nationwide compete to construct data centers, with the United States leading with over 4,400 data centers.
Written by urgent.news from Tom's Hardware's reporting — not their text. Machine-written — it may contain errors, so check the original before relying on it.
