Hundreds storm Microsoft's Amsterdam data center build site

Several hundred activists broke into the construction site of a planned Microsoft data center in Amsterdam's Sloterdijk district on Friday, climbing a crane, setting off flares and spray-painting the concrete foundations, The Verge reported. Dutch police detained between 150 and 200 people on suspicion of trespassing, according to Al Jazeera.

The organizer was Geef Tegengas, a Dutch group whose name translates roughly as 'Push Back,' joined by Extinction Rebellion, Fossiel Vrij Nederland and pro-Palestine demonstrators. Spokesperson Nathan Timmer framed the action around Microsoft's contracts with US Immigration and Customs Enforcement and the Israeli military, as well as AI's water and energy footprint. "We don't want it to be built. Nobody needs it," Timmer said, alleging the Sloterdijk facility would be used for "AI slop. AI warfare, data surveillance and committing genocide." Protesters hung a banner reading 'Down with data centers, fuck AI' from a crane and claimed the campus would "consume as much energy as all the households in Amsterdam combined," per NL Times.

A Microsoft spokesperson said: "We understand that people feel strongly about the project, and we respect their right to express those views peacefully. However, we do not condone any actions that are unlawful or that put people's safety at risk."

Amsterdam has formally restricted new data centers through 2030, but the Sloterdijk project, developed by Britain's Pure Data Centres, was grandfathered in because its planning dates to about 2016. Friday's action is billed as the opening of a two-day 'Stop Dirty Data Centres' wave coordinated across 15 European countries on November 6 and 7, with further protests scheduled at another Microsoft site in Denmark and in Dublin and Warsaw.