Kentucky farmers take on AI data-center boom – WSJ

A Rural US family has refused to sell their land for $26.5mn as a proposed hyperscale facility divided their community A farming family in rural America has rejected a multimillion-dollar offer to sell their land for a data center development, joining opposition to a rapid buildout of such facilities driven by the AI boom in the US.

According to the Wall Street Journal, a mother and daughter from Maysville, Kentucky, were offered $26.48 million for roughly 216 hectares of farmland, nearly ten times its estimated open-market value.

Delsia Bare, 54, and Ida Huddleston, 83, initially agreed to sell but reversed their decision after learning that their land would become part of a planned 2.2-gigawatt hyperscale data center.

Such a facility could consume as much electricity as nearly two million average US homes.

A Kentucky mother and daughter turned down a life-changing offer for their farmland.

The ensuing drama has left the town divided. https://t.co/AsGn0ZVVHR — The Wall Street Journal (@WSJ) August 16, 2026 The identity of the company behind the project was not disclosed, although evidence obtained through public records indicated it was Meta, the WSJ reported.

Meta said that no decision had been made about working in the area.

The family has owned the land for nearly 200 years, using it over generations to raise cattle and grow tobacco and other crops.

A hyperscale data-center campus, by contrast, typically comprises multiple buildings housing thousands of computer servers, along with extensive cooling, electricity, and backup-power infrastructure.

Several neighboring landowners agreed to sell property for the project, with purchase agreements worth a combined $110 million.

Legal challenges brought by Bare and other opponents, however, delayed the transactions and the payments expected by participating landowners.

Read more ‘AI will know everything about everybody’ – Kim Dotcom The development has divided the community.

Local development officials say it could create 400 permanent jobs and hundreds more during construction, while occupancy and property taxes generated by the facility could double or triple the town budget.

With one in four residents living below the poverty line, some locals reportedly see Bare and Huddleston as relatively well-off landowners standing in the way of jobs and investment.