Several hundred activists occupied the site of a planned Microsoft artificial-intelligence data centre outside Amsterdam on Friday, part of a coordinated two-day protest that organisers said was taking place at multiple locations across Europe. Demonstrators carried banners criticising the rapid expansion of AI infrastructure and called on authorities to impose tighter limits on new projects.

The protest reflects a broader debate taking hold across Europe over the resource demands of artificial intelligence. Large data centres consume vast amounts of electricity to run and cool their servers, and many also draw heavily on local water supplies for cooling systems. Communities near proposed sites in the Netherlands and elsewhere have raised concerns that new AI facilities could strain regional power grids and compete with households and other industries for scarce electricity during periods of high demand.

Dutch authorities have announced no new restrictions in response to Friday's demonstration, and Microsoft has not said whether the protest will affect its construction timeline. The dispute echoes earlier friction in Ireland and other European countries, where data-centre operators have faced local resistance and, in some cases, grid-connection limits tied to concerns about long-term energy capacity. Regulators in Brussels have signalled they are watching the sector's growth closely as AI investment accelerates.