It seems that tech giants eyeing rural zones for data center development have underestimated how attached American farmers have grown to their lands in the decades they’ve been nurturing them.
Across the country, several farmers have firmly rejected eye-popping offers—sometimes in the tens of millions. These offers dwarf the value of their properties, but farmers have refused to put a price on the lands that they love most.
In a report on Monday, The Guardian highlighted a handful of cases nationwide where farmers’ refusals have frustrated plans to build data centers in areas long deemed rural.
It’s unclear how many farmers have received such offers, but rural lands have been increasingly targeted as demand for data centers to power AI has grown—most recently projected to increase by 165 percent by 2030. Globally, 40,000 acres are needed to support data center growth over the next five years, Hines Research estimated.
For “Silicon Valley executives,” rural areas are likely attractive due to “weak zoning protections, cheap power, and abundant water,” The Guardian reported.
It likely doesn’t help to sell the farmers these deals when they tend to come out of nowhere, following a knock on the door from a middleman who doesn’t make it clear who wants to buy the land or how the land would be used.
One 82-year-old Kentucky woman, Ida Huddleston, turned away a “Fortune 500 company” offering $33 million for 650 acres. NBC News reported that several of her neighbors received similar offers. Huddleston joined at least five other residents in the county who refused to move forward after learning they’d have to sign a non-disclosure agreement just to find out who they would be dealing with. Ultimately, Huddleston had to search public records to figure out that a data center was even being planned in the area, The Guardian reported. The lack of transparency is a problem, farmers have said, because what buyers want to do with the land matters.
“You don’t have enough to buy me out,” Huddleston told the company representatives when rejecting the deal. “I’m not for sale. Leave me alone, I’m satisfied.”