Protesters break into Microsoft data center site in Amsterdam

Around 100 protesters entered a construction site on Amsterdam’s outskirts where Microsoft is developing a new data center. Organized in part by the activist group Geef Tegengas, demonstrators climbed a crane and displayed banners reading “fuck AI” and “Microsoft powers genocide,” while chanting against the company and calling for a free Palestine. The project consists of three towers, each 85 meters tall, and is being built by British developer Pure Data Centres for Microsoft as its sole tenant.

The construction has drawn opposition because Amsterdam banned new data centers until 2030, following a temporary pause announced in late 2023. The Microsoft project, planned as early as 2016, has nevertheless advanced by navigating exceptions to the restrictions. The site protest is part of a wider wave of European demonstrations against data center development: activists staged a mock Israeli military checkpoint outside a Microsoft facility in Dublin earlier in the week. Opposition also reflects concerns about the effects of data centers on local communities, as well as criticism of Microsoft’s technology contracts connected to Israel’s war against Hamas. The company has faced protests from employees over those contracts, and recently abandoned a major UK data center plan after officials said the power grid could not supply it until the 2030s.