Protesters Storm Microsoft Data Center Construction Site in Amsterdam

A construction site for a Microsoft data center on the outskirts of Amsterdam became the scene of a protest this morning. According to reports, about 100 people managed to get onto the site. Members of the group Geef Tegengas were involved in organizing the action.

The protest targeted the construction of three 85-meter data center towers. It comes as demonstrations against data centers continue in waves across Europe, and the Amsterdam action is one of the latest examples.

What happened on site

According to reports, some of the protesters climbed a crane on the site and placed a banner reading "fuck AI" on it. Protesters also unfurled a banner on the site reading "Microsoft powers genocide." Participants chanted "Microsoft has got to go" and "free Palestine."

The banners and slogans suggest the action was aimed not only at the construction project itself but also at artificial intelligence and at Microsoft as a company.

A project that continues despite the ban

Amsterdam announced a temporary halt in late 2023 and later imposed a ban on new data centers until 2030. The project in question is nonetheless moving ahead. It was planned as early as 2016, long before the ban took effect, and is proceeding as originally planned. Microsoft will be the facility's sole tenant.

The British developer running the site, Pure Data Centres, is reported to have reached the construction phase by taking advantage of certain loopholes. In other words, at a time when the city has closed the door to new data centers, a structure is advancing thanks to planning that predates the ban.

Growing backlash in Europe and the US

The Amsterdam action followed a protest in Dublin the same week. On Tuesday, activists set up a fake Israeli military checkpoint outside a Microsoft data center in Dublin. That action, too, is cited as part of the wider wave of data center protests across Europe.

The mood is similar across the Atlantic. Earlier the same week, voters in the US rejected the unchecked spread of data centers. AI data centers continue to multiply in the US, and local residents, worried about the impact on their communities, frequently push back.

Last month, Microsoft also abandoned the UK's largest data center project after local power grid officials said they could not supply energy to the site until the 2030s.

Protests by Microsoft's own workers

For the past year the company has also faced protests from current and former employees. Microsoft's 50th anniversary celebration was interrupted by employees protesting the use of its technology in Israel's war against Hamas. At one of these actions, an employee called Microsoft's AI chief, Mustafa Suleyman, a "war profiteer."

Last year an employee interrupted CEO Satya Nadella's keynote at the Build developer conference. A few months later, Microsoft fired two employees who occupied the president's office. Taken together, these incidents show that both the company's on-the-ground projects and its internal dynamics have recently been at the center of protests.