Protesters break into Microsoft data centre site in Amsterdam as Europe’s backlash spreads

In Germany, a dozen protesters gathered in front of a data centre on the outskirts of Berlin on Friday.

“We want to put a stop to this blind construction of data centres around Germany, regardless of any environmental concerns,” said the protest spokeswoman Caro Weber. 

“This is really, really dangerous for our future.”

In Italy, the fast-growing data centre industry faces an equally rapid rise in grassroots opposition, particularly in the northern Lombardy region, the country’s main hub for digital infrastructure.

Activists argue that the boom in facilities serving cloud computing and artificial intelligence is moving faster than public consultation and environmental oversight.

The movement reached a milestone on Oct 10, when more than 1,000 people and representatives of around 40 local committees gathered in Milan’s Piazza della Scala for what organisers described as Italy’s first national demonstration against data centres.

Protesters called for a moratorium on new projects and demanded a national strategy governing the industry’s growth. The demonstration followed a series of increasingly large mobilisations in towns around Milan.

Europe is projected to attract US$5.6 trillion in cumulative data centre capital expenditure from 2026 through 2050, accounting for around 18 per cent of global investment, according to PwC’s Global Data Centre Outlook 2026–50.

The US is forecast to attract US$15.1 trillion in capital spending on data centres during that period, the report said.