Across parts of rural America, farmers are increasingly turning down extraordinarily high offers from tech companies seeking land to build artificial intelligence data centres, even when those offers exceed historical land values by many multiples. In states like Kentucky, Pennsylvania, and Wisconsin, landowners have been offered multimillion-dollar sums — in some cases $80 million or more — for large tracts, but many are refusing to sell due to deep emotional and cultural ties to their land and concerns about environmental and community impacts.
The data-centre boom is driven by the tech industry’s insatiable demand for space with reliable power access and water resources, needed to support cloud and AI infrastructure — often referred to as “powered land.” Developers are projected to need tens of thousands of acres over the next few years just to keep up with this growth. TechSpot notes that the intensity of these pursuits has reshaped rural real estate markets, pushing prices sky-high in some regions as firms vie for favourable sites.
But for many farmers, land represents legacy and livelihood rather than a simple asset to be monetised. Some reject offers even far above market value because they want to preserve agricultural production and rural identity, worrying that sprawling data centres could strain local power grids, consume water, and forever alter the landscape. In one high-profile case, an 86-year-old Pennsylvania farmer refused a $15 million offer and instead sold only the development rights of his farmland to a conservation program — retaining the land’s agricultural use in perpetuity.
These refusals underscore growing resistance to AI-related infrastructure expansion when it collides with community values and environmental concerns. They also illustrate broader tensions as the AI industry scales up physical infrastructure: even massive financial incentives do not guarantee land deals when long-standing traditions and local priorities are at stake, and some communities are pushing back against the pace and scale of development just as much as concerns about energy, jobs, and rural character grow.
