Protesters entered a data center construction site intended for Microsoft in Amsterdam on Nov. 6, 2026, climbing cranes during a demonstration, Reuters reported in The Straits Times.
Some protesters hung an anti-AI banner from a crane. Others displayed a banner reading “Microsoft powers genocide” and chanted “free Palestine,” Tom Warren reported for The Verge. Warren, citing Reuters, put the number who entered at around 100. Reuters' later report described more than 100 activists gathering at the site, rather than giving that figure as an entrant count.
Microsoft will be the sole tenant of the development being built by British developer Pure Data Centres, according to The Verge. Reuters identified Pure Data Centres as the site owner.
The organizers' objections
Dutch activist collective Geef Tegengas helped organize the action. In a statement reported by Georgia Hennessy of Business Insider, spokesperson Roos Molenaar said: “We won't accept Amsterdam being used for the creation of AI slop and the facilitation of genocide.”
The group also raised concerns about drinking-water use and pressure on the power grid during a housing shortage. It objected to what it described as the use of Microsoft's technology for surveillance and military operations. Those were the organizers' stated objections, not findings about this site's operations.
Microsoft and the owner respond
Microsoft said it understood people's strong feelings about the project and respected their right to express them peacefully, but did not condone unlawful actions, according to Reuters' report in The Straits Times.
