Protesters broke into a construction site for a new Microsoft data centre in Amsterdam on Saturday, with some climbing a crane and setting off flares while others clashed with police, the latest action in a growing anti-data centre movement sweeping Europe.
Nathan Timmer of the protest group Geef Tegengas, a phrase that translates as Push Back, told local broadcaster AT5 that protesters were occupying the site in an effort to stop construction.
Campaigners against data centres in Europe are expected to stage protests and other actions in several countries on Saturday and Sunday, demanding a moratorium on large-scale developments to address social and environmental concerns around the energy-hungry behemoths.
"We don’t want it to be built. Nobody needs it," Timmer said. "The only thing this will be used for is AI slop. AI warfare, data surveillance and committing genocides. We don’t want that,” he added, vowing to continue protesting until construction is halted.
Pro-Palestinian activists also joined the demonstrations in the Dutch capital. By late afternoon police were escorting activists off the construction site, though some still remained, local media reported.
Dutch police said Friday evening that they detained 150-200 people suspected of trespassing during the protest.
Microsoft said it was aware of the Amsterdam demonstration. "We understand that people feel strongly about the project, and we respect their right to express those views peacefully," a spokesperson said. "However, we do not condone any actions that are unlawful or that put people’s safety at risk."
The demonstrations come days after the US midterm elections ushered in a wave of Democrats promising to clamp down on data centers, which face resistance around the world due to the massive amounts of computing power and water they use.
Dozens of civil society and grassroots groups have said they will join the "Stop Dirty Data Centres" events on Friday and Saturday in 15 European countries, including Ireland, Poland, Denmark, Finland, Spain, Italy, the Netherlands, France and the UK, organisers said.
“There’s a gulf between where elected leaders are at in terms of buying into the hype about AI and where people are at,” said Owen Espley, coordinator of StopDirtyDataCentres.eu.
In Germany, a dozen protesters gathered in front of a data centre on the outskirts of Berlin on Friday.
"We want to put a stop to this blind construction of data centres around Germany, regardless of any environmental concerns," said the protest spokeswoman Caro Weber. "This is really, really dangerous for our future."
Around 100 people also protested against data centres in front of the Polish parliament on Friday, representing communities around Warsaw where new centres are planned.
In Italy, the fast-growing data centre industry faces an equally rapid rise in grassroots opposition, particularly in the northern Lombardy region, the country’s main hub for digital infrastructure.
Activists argue that the boom in facilities serving cloud computing and artificial intelligence is moving faster than public consultation and environmental oversight.
The movement reached a milestone on October 10, when more than 1000 people and representatives of around 40 local committees gathered in Milan’s Piazza della Scala for what organisers described as Italy’s first national demonstration against data centres.
Protesters called for a moratorium on new projects and demanded a national strategy governing the industry’s growth. The demonstration followed a series of increasingly large mobilisations in towns around Milan.
Europe is projected to attract US$5.6 trillion in cumulative data centre capital expenditure from 2026 through 2050, accounting for around 18% of global investment, according to PwC’s Global Data Centre Outlook 2026–50.
The U.S. is forecast to attract US$15.1 trillion (NZ$27.2 trillion) in capital spending on data centres during that period, the report said.
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