An unnamed AI company's substantial offer of $26 million to acquire half of a 1,200-acre farm in Northern Kentucky was rejected by the Huddleston family, who cited deep historical ties to the land and concerns about the environmental and societal impacts of data centers. The offer, reportedly ten times the land's assessed value of $6,000 per acre, was declined by Ida Huddleston and her daughter, Delsia Bare.
Bare stated that the family has a long history on the property, with generations having lived, paid taxes, and cultivated the land. She emphasized the land's historical significance, noting that her ancestors grew wheat through the Great Depression, sustaining bread lines in the United States. "My grandfather and great-grandfather and a whole bunch of family have all lived here for years, paid taxes on it, fed a nation off of it," Bare told WKRC-TV Local 12. She added, "They call us old stupid farmers, you know, but we’re not. We know whenever our food is disappearing, our lands are disappearing, and we don’t have any water—and that poison. Well, we know we’ve had it."
The family expressed skepticism about the promised economic benefits of such a facility, with Huddleston describing the claims as "a scam" and asserting that the truth was not with the company. This rejection comes amid growing concerns surrounding the proliferation of AI data centers. These facilities require immense amounts of power and water, raising environmental questions, and have also become points of contention in communities. For example, Elon Musk's SpaceXAI recently agreed to remove methane turbines in Memphis following resident complaints about local disruption.
Bare indicated that dozens of landowners in the area have been approached by the same anonymous buyer representing a major AI company. The Huddleston family's decision highlights a growing resistance to the rapid expansion of AI infrastructure, as communities and landowners weigh the financial allure against their heritage and environmental values. Data centers, fueled by the demand for AI technologies, have seen rapid growth, with companies like Nvidia becoming trillion-dollar entities due to their role in supplying the necessary hardware.