Kentucky mother, 82, rejects $26 million for family farm as AI data center plans advance: ‘Everything coming out of the data center is going to be poison and destructive’

82-year-old Ida Huddleston has lived on the same stretch of farmland since she was 16. She and her late husband built a log home there, raised their children and spent decades working the land. Today, the family owns about 1,200 acres, with several generations still living on the property.

So when a major artificial intelligence company came looking to buy hundreds of acres for a massive data center project, Huddleston and her daughter, Delsia Bare, faced a decision that could have changed their family’s future. The offer was reportedly worth more than $26 million but they declined the offer.

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The AI company wanted hundreds of acres

Last spring, an unnamed company described as a major AI firm approached landowners in Mason County about acquiring property for a proposed data center campus.

Huddleston was offered around $60,000 an acre for her 71 acres, putting the potential deal at more than $4 million. Bare, 54, was offered approximately $48,000 an acre for her 463 acres. Her potential payout was more than $22 million.

Together, the offers exceeded $26 million, a staggering amount compared with the roughly $6,000-an-acre value cited for farmland in the county.

She briefly signed a contract to sell, partly because she was concerned about what could happen if the company eventually pursued eminent domain. She also described feeling pressure from developers who did not identify themselves.

But eventually, the money was not enough to make her comfortable with leaving. She and her mother backed out of the deal.

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‘Money couldn’t move’ what the family built

Huddleston has spent most of her life on the property. For her, the farm represents decades of memories, family history and work that cannot simply be replaced with a large check.

“Money couldn’t move what all I’ve got put in place here,” Huddleston told People. “So I just might as well stay and fight it out right where I’m at.”

They question whether the economic benefits promised by the project will outweigh its potential impact on the surrounding community and environment. Huddleston has also raised concerns about the water and environmental demands associated with large data centers.

“You can’t get food out of a data center,” Huddleston said in the People interview, “and everything coming out of the data center is going to be poison and destructive.”

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Daughter says she never wanted to leave

Bare's attachment to the family farm goes beyond its financial value. Despite the extraordinary amount of money on the table, she says selling was never really what she wanted.

“The more money you have, the more problems you have,” she told People. “It never went through my mind that this was a Cinderella story. I never wanted to leave my land.”

That sentiment captures a growing tension in rural communities where farmland is increasingly being considered for large-scale technology infrastructure.

For communities, however, data centers can bring questions about water use, electricity demand, roads, noise, construction and the long-term transformation of agricultural land.

The data center project is still moving forward

The Huddleston family's decision did not stop the proposed project. The company has continued assembling land from other property owners who agreed to sell.

A zoning request was filed covering nearly 28 agricultural parcels and more than 2,000 acres. The local planning commission subsequently approved the rezoning, according to Local 12.

If the project is built, the data center would be located next to the Huddleston family's farm rather than on their property. County officials have said the development could create hundreds of full-time jobs, along with more than 1,000 construction jobs.

But Huddleston remains unconvinced that the project will deliver everything supporters have promised. “I don’t want your money, I don’t need your money,” she told LEX 18. “But I do feel sorry for everybody around us.”

Why AI data centers are becoming a rural flashpoint

The dispute in Mason County is part of a broader national debate over where America's rapidly expanding AI infrastructure should be built. AI companies need enormous computing facilities to train and operate increasingly powerful models. Those facilities require large amounts of land, electricity and, in many cases, water for cooling.

That has increasingly put technology companies in competition with farmers, ranchers and rural communities for land and infrastructure. In Michigan, residents of Saline Township voted against an OpenAI-Oracle data center proposal, even as the development moved forward afterward.

Elsewhere, public meetings over proposed data centers have drawn angry crowds, while opposition to large AI facilities has emerged across political lines.

Texas has also seen farmers and ranchers push back against the expansion of data centers, highlighting concerns over land, electricity and the changing character of rural communities.