‘Fuck AI’: Protesters Storm a Microsoft Data Center Site in Amsterdam

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Europe’s resistance to the A.I. buildout has reached the construction crane: Hundreds of activists broke into the construction site of a new data center for Microsoft in Amsterdam on Friday. Some climbed a crane and hung a banner reading “Down with data centers, fuck AI.” Police moved in with pepper spray and detained several people.

🚨 BREAKING: PROTESTORS STORM MICROSOFT DATA CENTER SITE IN AMSTERDAM https://t.co/577vVUtKxc

— WallStreetBots (@WallStreetB0Ts) November 6, 2026

Over the Fence With Ladders

The action was organized by the Dutch group Geef Tegengas, which roughly translates to “push back,” with support from Extinction Rebellion and pro-Palestinian groups. According to NL Times, protesters climbed the fence with ladders, cut a hole in it and scaled scaffolding and the crane. Their number is disputed: Reuters reported about 100 people on the site, while a Geef Tegengas spokeswoman told the local broadcaster AT5 that around 500 had entered, with hundreds more outside the fence.

Datacenter in aanbouw bezet in Amsterdam.

Geef Tegengas heeft het bouwterrein van Microsoft bezet met zo'n 50 demonstranten.

Naast het terrein is een support-demonstratie. https://t.co/UgBHoXKZ8C

— Eppo Tjuchem (@EppoTjuchem) November 6, 2026

The activists spray-painted slogans on the concrete foundations, and another banner read “Microsoft powers genocide.” Protesters chanted “Microsoft has got to go” and “free Palestine,” accusing the company of providing cloud services to the Israeli military and U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement. Last year, Microsoft cut off an Israeli military unit from some of its cloud and A.I. services after media reports about the mass surveillance of Palestinians.

"F*ck AI!"

Activists stormed Microsoft's Amsterdam data centre site, broke through fences, climbed cranes, and sprayed graffiti. Riot police showed up with batons.

The site will reportedly use as much electricity as every home in Amsterdam. https://t.co/EBu1992Rc9

— Chay Bowes (@BowesChay) November 6, 2026

Geef Tegengas is known for this kind of action. In recent years, the group has repeatedly blocked rail lines in the Port of Rotterdam, and in June it blocked the entrance to the same construction site.

Three Towers, 85 Meters Each

The data center in Amsterdam’s Sloterdijk district is being built by the British developer Pure Data Centres, which is investing more than 1 billion euros in the project. Plans call for three 85-meter towers with a combined grid connection of 78 megawatts, with Microsoft as the sole tenant. Protesters say the facility will use as much electricity as all of Amsterdam’s households combined. Mona Keijzer, then the Dutch minister for spatial planning, said earlier this year that it would use as much power a year as a small city. The twist: Amsterdam has banned new data centers until 2030. But the Microsoft project had been in the works for years, and its permit was granted before the ban. The national rule against hyperscale data centers does not apply either, because it covers only facilities with more than 70 megawatts and more than 10 hectares of land. The three towers sit on just 2.3 hectares.

A Wave of Protests Across Europe

Amsterdam is not an isolated case. On Tuesday, activists staged a mock Israeli military checkpoint outside a Microsoft data center in Dublin. In Ireland, data centers are especially contentious because they consume a large share of the country’s electricity. In Spain, villages like Torrelobatón are fighting huge new facilities, and in Finland, regulators recently ordered Google to halt work on two data centers after forests were cleared before the environmental review was complete. Resistance is growing in the United States, too. In this week’s midterm elections, voters in many places rejected unrestrained data center development, and according to one analysis, 78 percent of newly elected members of Congress want to regulate or restrict data centers. Protests against the A.I. companies themselves have also grown louder: In July, hundreds marched through San Francisco under the slogan “Stop the AI Race”, from OpenAI to Anthropic to Google DeepMind.

Brussels Is Betting on the Buildout

Politically, the protests run counter to Brussels’ plans. The European Union wants to mobilize about 30 billion euros for data centers and is backing so-called A.I. gigafactories so that Europe does not fall further behind the United States and China. The hyperscalers are investing heavily as well: Google is putting 13 billion euros into A.I. infrastructure in Finland, and Microsoft and Amazon are planning large facilities in Aragon, Spain. That makes Amsterdam a sought-after location for Pure Data Centres. “Amsterdam is one of Europe’s most constrained markets for digital infrastructure,” Dawn Childs, the company’s chief executive, said when the investment was announced. Politically, the project can no longer be stopped. “This permit was granted five years ago,” Ms. Keijzer told Parliament. “So there’s nothing I can do about it anymore.” Microsoft said it respected people’s right to express their opinions peacefully but did not condone actions that broke the law or put people’s safety at risk.