US Farmers Are Rejecting Multimillion-Dollar Datacenter Bids For Their Land (theguardian.com)
- Reference: 0180849514
- News link: https://news.slashdot.org/story/26/02/24/005258/us-farmers-are-rejecting-multimillion-dollar-datacenter-bids-for-their-land
- Source link: https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2026/feb/21/us-farmers-datacenters
> When two men knocked on Ida Huddleston's door last May, they carried a contract worth more than $33m in exchange for the Kentucky farm that had fed her family for centuries. According to Huddleston, the men's client, an unnamed "Fortune 100 company," sought her 650 acres (260 hectares) in Mason county for an unspecified industrial development. Finding out any more would require signing a non-disclosure agreement. More than a dozen of her neighbors received the same knock. Searching public records for answers, they discovered that [1]a new customer (PDF) had applied for a 2.2 gigawatt project from the local power plant, nearly double its annual generation capacity. The unknown company was building a datacenter. "You don't have enough to buy me out. I'm not for sale. Leave me alone, I'm satisfied," Huddleston, 82, later told the men.
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> As tech companies race to build the massive datacenters needed to power artificial intelligence across the US and the world, [2]bids like the one for Huddleston's land are appearing on rural doorsteps nationwide . Globally, 40,000 acres of powered land – real estate prepped for datacenter development -- are [3]projected to be needed for new projects over the next five years, double the amount currently in use. Yet despite sums that often dwarf the land's recent value, farmers are increasingly shutting the door. At least five of Huddleston's neighbors gave similar categorical rejections, including one who was told he could name any price.
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> In Pennsylvania, a farmer [4]rejected $15m in January for land he'd worked for 50 years. A Wisconsin farmer [5]turned down $80m the same month. Other landowners have declined [6]offers exceeding $120,000 per acre -- prices unimaginable just a few years ago. The rebuffs are a jarring reminder of AI's physical bounds, and limits of the dollars behind the technology. [...] As AI promises to transcend corporeal fallibility, these standoffs reveal its very physical constraints -- and Wall Street's miscalculation of what some people value most. In the rolling hills of Mason county and farmland across America, that gap is measured not in dollars but in something harder to price: identity.
[1] https://www.pjm.com/-/media/DotCom/committees-groups/committees/teac/2025/20250506/20250506-item-06---ekpc-supplemental-projects.pdf
[2] https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2026/feb/21/us-farmers-datacenters
[3] https://www.hines.com/powered-land
[4] https://www.lancasterfarming.com/farming-news/conservation/data-center-developers-offered-farmer-60k-per-acre-he-preserved-the-land-instead/article_a4c0fc64-53ca-45cf-9f3e-d323515b2555.html
[5] https://fox11online.com/news/local/mishicot-area-residents-and-family-farms-rally-against-proposed-ai-data-center-cloverleaf-infrastructure-nsi-land-services-two-creeks-anthony-barta-northeast-wisconsin-artificial-intelligence
[6] https://www.wpr.org/wp-content/uploads/2026/01/image0-scaled.jpeg
AI data centers in power-cheap locations (Score:2)
This is why I've always contended the majority of AI data centers will be located in countries where power is cheap and plentiful. China has a good number of them because they're probably located near one of the many coal-fired powerplants built in the last 35 years.
As such, I expect both Iceland and Norway to be major locations for AI data centers. Iceland because of its vast available geothermal power and Norway because of its vast available hydropower.
Just sell, but with a "bubble clause" (Score:1)
that says if the company closes the data center, the original land owner gets their land back. Then when the bubble pops, the farmer may end up with $30m and the farmland.
Re: Just sell, but with a "bubble clause" (Score:3)
They probably make more from the Gov to not farm the land.
Re: (Score:2)
....and likely a half built datacenter with billions in lein debt leveraged against it. One might rather that not return
Zoning (Score:1)
We have zoning in cities. Perhaps it's time to zone farmland as farmland and forbid it from being used for anything else without regulatory review.
Re: Zoning (Score:2)
That's how a normal country would manage a valuable resource and vital infrastructure.
Re: (Score:3)
Oh the day has come when people look at vile, despicable anti-capitalist actions in cities and think "lets do the same thing in farmlands".
Zoning laws, not high taxes, are the reason people are fleeing California. The lack of multifamily housing (condos and apartment buildings) is why housing got so expensive.
Doing the same mistakes in the countryside is foolish.
Build up... (Score:2)
The $33million translates roughly to $22-35 per square feet of data center white space. At some point, going to 3-story facilities starts to make more sense, even given the inherent complications of it. But the power side of the equation really needs to be solved by these developers, at their sole cost.
Re: (Score:2)
And the rack mass.
When 3rd party DC folks advertise to us these days, they are careful to highlight the bearing strength of their floors.
"David vs. Goliath" struggle for identity (Score:2)
Ah yes, a "David vs. Goliath" struggle for identity story. But from a purely economic and developmental standpoint, the "anti-AI" narrative ignores the massive opportunity costs and the broader benefits of these investments. This trend isn't a sign of bad things, it's a sign of progress and something good. I'm not surprised though when journalists write this junk as they themselves are in the AI crosshairs. Anyway, a few points - this is perhaps the largest potential wealth injection to rural areas for, wel
Explains why food got so expensive (Score:2)
If farmers are being offered super high prices for their land, well, not all of them are going to have the courage and financial resources to turn down the offers.
The less honorable / farmers in debt are going to sell out and reduce the supply of food. Meanwhile those farmers wishing to buy more land will find inflated prices, so they will raise their own prices.