"When two men knocked on Ida Huddleston's door last May, they carried a contract worth more than $33m in exchange for the Kentucky farm that had fed her family for centuries. According to Huddleston, the men's client, an unnamed Fortune 100 company, sought her 650 acres (260 hectares) in Mason county for an unspecified industrial development. Finding out any more would require signing a non-disclosure agreement."
"As tech companies race to build the massive datacenters needed to power artificial intelligence across the US and the world, bids like the one for Huddleston's land are appearing on rural doorsteps nationwide. Globally, 40,000 acres of powered land real estate prepped for datacenter development are projected to be needed for new projects over the next five years, double the amount currently in use. Yet despite sums that often dwarf the land's recent value, farmers are increasingly shutting the door."
Tech companies are pursuing large swaths of rural land to build massive datacenters that power artificial intelligence. Companies are approaching farmers with multimillion-dollar offers to acquire powered, development-ready acreage. Public records reveal new customers seeking multigigawatt power connections for datacenter projects that can double local generation capacity. Many long-held family farms are being offered sums far above recent values, yet numerous owners categorically refuse to sell. Examples include an 82-year-old Kentucky farmer asked to sell 650 acres for $33m, and other farmers who rejected $15m, $80m, or offers exceeding $120,000 per acre. The trend underscores the physical land and power demands of AI expansion.
Read at www.theguardian.com
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