Police detain 218 after protesters storm Microsoft's Amsterdam data centre site as Europe's backlash grows
What happened? Protesters broke into the construction site of a data centre that Pure Data CentresDealroom has a profile for this one. Try Dealroom → is building for Microsoft in Amsterdam's Westpoort/Sloterdijk area on 6 November 2026, climbing a crane and the roof of the unfinished building before riot police cleared the site, AP and NOS reported. Police detained 218 people, mostly on suspicion of trespass; all have since been released, with prosecutors still weighing charges against a few, Het Parool reported.
Who and why: The action, led by the Dutch group Geef Tegengas alongside a separate Fossielvrij NL demonstration, was part of a Europe-wide "Stop Dirty Data Centres" campaign calling for a moratorium on large new facilities, with protests also planned in Dublin, Warsaw and Denmark. Protesters objected to the site's power use and reliance on gas, the power of Big Tech, and what they called Microsoft's role in Israel's war in Gaza. Microsoft said it respects the right to protest peacefully but does not condone unlawful actions; Pure DC said it would take legal action.
Why it matters: The campus, three 85-metre towers with about 78MW of capacity and Microsoft as sole tenant, is set to be Amsterdam's largest data centre by power. It was approved before the city and national government restricted new data centres. The clash shows that the community pushback against AI infrastructure seen in the US is now reaching Europe's main hubs, adding a new risk for developers such as Pure DC, which recently raised $780M in debt for its European and Middle East expansion.
Read more: AP, NOS, Het Parool
Image: NOS / ANP
