'We used acid to sabotage Microsoft hyperscale data centre construction'

In the night of 16 july, people from Extinction Rebellion (XR) targetted a Microsoft data centre construction site in the Amsterdam port area. The group says to have tried to weaken the recently placed reinforced concrete foundations, by dousing them with a mixture of hydrogen peroxide, acetic acid, salt, and acrylic paint. According to Extinction Rebellion, the acid attacks the concrete, the hydrogen peroxide causes steel to rust faster, and salt speeds up the process. Techwerkers called with Martijn Dekker, spokesperson of Extinction Rebellion.

The activists threw balloons filled with the chemical mixure over the perimiter fence onto the open foundation. With their action, Extinction Rebellion joins an earlier campaign against the construction of the data center in Amsterdam, started by Geef Tegengas, which in June this year held a protest at the site where they occupied entrances and machinery, forcing construction activity to a halt for much of the day.

In the Netherlands there is a growing awareness of the ecological and social damage done by the massive data centers built by hyperscaler big tech. For example, a single Microsoft data centre in the Dutch town of Middenmeer is responsible for 1% of all electricity use in The Netherlands, newspaper NRC reported this week. These new massive data centres are almost exclusively built to fuel the AI hype, which has been used as an excuse for mass layoffs among tech workers, crushes creativity and cognition, and fills people’s lives with meaningless slop.

Also Dekker sees that concerns about data centres are widely felt. “The discussion is picking up fast. Everyone seems to be complaining about them. There’s an acute water shortage in The Netherlands right now. When I open BlueSky, everyone is talking about water being increasingly wasted on cooling data centres. And for what? To generate more AI shit.”

With these direct actions against the Microsoft construction site, Dutch activists also become part of a global movement to stop energy-guzzling hyperscalers. In the United States, where this movement is now most developed, the opposition to data centres is monitored by Data Center Watch. According to their most recent report, in 2026 at least 75 projects worth approximately $130 billion disrupted by local opposition in the USA alone.

In recent years, people from Extinction Rebellion Netherlands have focused heavily on large scale disruptive action of ‘business as usual’. For example, since 2022 they have blocked the A12 motor way over forty times, to put pressure on the Dutch government’s subsidies to fossil industry. In that type of action, you cause disruption to people on the road to make a point that’s meant for politicians. This time they chose a direct action tactic to target the Microsoft site. “I think it shows how the movement evolves,” says Dekker. “You need to keep looking for what resonates with people. What’s effective. To target Microsoft in this way, it’s something that many people can understand.”