A farming family in northern Kentucky has turned down a $26 million offer from a Fortune 100 company seeking to build a large AI-linked data centre, choosing instead to keep land they say carries far greater value than money.The decision by the Huddleston family has drawn attention as a clash between expanding digital infrastructure and long-held agricultural land, a tension playing out across parts of the United States.
A generational farm at the centre of a growing dispute
The Huddleston family’s 1,200-acre farm in Mason County, Kentucky, has been worked for generations, producing cattle that supply the wider region. The land has endured through major historical periods, including the Great Depression, when the family helped feed local communities. That continuity is now under pressure. According to Delsia Bare, a member of the family, an undisclosed company approached them in April last year with an offer of $26 million for roughly 900 acres of the property, located just outside Maysville city limits. The plan is to build a large-scale data centre campus. “The heartbreak that it [the land] could be gone is the first thing I feel. Literally a pain in the chest right there where the heart’s at,” Bare told Live 5 WCSC.
Delsia Bare and her mother, Ida Huddleston, reject $26 million offer, calling generational Kentucky farmland priceless/ Image: Fox 19
Her mother, Ida Huddleston, rejected the proposal outright. “I said, ‘No, mine is priceless.’ What I’ve got here, I want to pass it down. What God told me to do was to keep it until I was through with it and then pass it on to the next generation,” she said.
A project with economic weight
The proposed development would extend beyond the Huddleston land. Plans indicate the rezoning of 28 properties, covering more than 2,000 acres in total.Matt Wallingford, Maysville City Manager, told the outlet the scale of the potential project is significant, calling it “a big deal for us.” Wallingford said the data centre could generate more than 1,000 construction jobs over eight to 10 years, along with more than 100 permanent roles averaging $100,000 a year. He also noted that a state tariff would require the company to fund additional infrastructure. “I know it is a lot, but I know the state of Kentucky has passed a tariff requiring the project to pay for all of the power, that means building a second power plant equivalent to the one we have now, no cost to taxpayers. There will be no rate increase to those who receive electricity from RECC,” he said. He added that the facility would use a closed-loop water system to reduce contamination risks, and that its waste output would be comparable to existing large retailers or factories.
Concerns over land, water and long-term impact
For the Huddleston family, the issue extends beyond a single sale. They have raised concerns about strain on water systems, pressure on the power grid and the permanent loss of fertile agricultural land. “They call us all stupid farmers, you know, but we’re not. We know when our food is disappearing, our land is disappearing,” the family said. Wallingford acknowledged those concerns but suggested the land could still retain value even if its use changes. “I would agree with that,” he said. “But it doesn’t mean that the buildings can’t be reutilized with that infrastructure there. Our industrial authority would be recruiting a new business to come in, so I think that land will be valuable whether that data center is there.”
“Mine is priceless”
For Ida Huddleston, the decision is also personal. Her home on the land was built by her late husband, and she says she intends to remain there. “He’s here all the time right with me and tells me what I’m going to have to do with the farm the next day and the next day, just like he would like it to be. He was something else,” she said. Both she and Bare have made clear that no financial offer will change their position. The family has said it will continue to resist the proposed development, even as pressure grows from a project that local officials say could reshape the region’s economy.
