Activists broke into the construction site of a new Microsoft data center in Amsterdam on Friday to protest its construction. According to Reuters, around 100 people entered the site.
- Activists broke into a Microsoft data center construction site in Amsterdam.
- About 100 people entered the site to protest the project.
- Some protesters climbed a crane and unfurled anti-AI and anti-Microsoft banners.
- The project predates Amsterdam’s ban on new data centers, which runs until 2030.
The action was organized with the help of the group Geef Tegengas, which opposes the construction of three 85-meter-high data center towers on the outskirts of the city. Some protesters climbed a crane to unfurl a banner reading “fuck AI”. Others displayed a “Microsoft powers genocide” banner and chanted “Microsoft must go” and “Free Palestine”.
The protest comes more than a year after the city of Amsterdam banned the establishment of new data centers until 2030, following a temporary moratorium announced at the end of 2023. Microsoft will be the sole tenant of this new site, whose project dates back to 2016, before the ban came into effect. The construction is being carried out by the British developer Pure Data Centres, which managed to exploit certain regulatory loopholes to reach the construction phase.
A context of multiple protests
This construction project is part of a broader environment for Microsoft. The group abandoned plans for what was to be the UK’s largest data center after local grid officials indicated the site would not be supplied with electricity until the 2030s.
The company has also faced a series of protests from former employees over the past year. During the celebration for Microsoft’s 50th anniversary, employees disrupted the event to denounce the use of the company’s technology in Israel’s war against Hamas. One of them called Mustafa Suleyman, Microsoft’s AI chief, a “war profiteer”.
