Overview
- The breach on Friday saw about 100 activists enter the Sloterdijk construction site, climb a crane, hang anti‑AI banners and prompt deployment of riot police and several arrests.
- Organisers tied the action to the Stop Dirty Data Centres coalition's coordinated protests across roughly 15–16 countries calling for a moratorium on new large‑scale data centres.
- Campaigners say the three‑tower Pure Data Centres project leased to Microsoft would demand roughly 78 MW of power and could strain Amsterdam’s electricity and water supplies and delay thousands of planned homes.
- Pure Data Centres and Microsoft asked protesters to leave safely and offered dialogue with local stakeholders while city authorities enforced a mayoral ban on the march and police defended the site.
- The Amsterdam breach builds on months of local resistance, including a June occupation and July attacks with paint and acidic mixtures, and adds pressure for regulatory reviews and local moratoriums on big data‑centre projects.