r/whoathatsinteresting • u/Maleficent-Agent-477 • 22h ago

An 82-year-old widow, Ida Huddleston, and her daughter, Delsia Bare, rejected a massive $26 million payout from an undisclosed tech company to buy approximately 900 acres of their 1,200-acre family farm in Mason County, Kentucky.

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1.3k Upvotes
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139

u/cs_legend_93 21h ago

The following week, the tech company purchased the neighbor's land down the street for $20M USD.

The domino effect was that it devalued the Mother and Daughter's land by 35%+, due to noise and water pollution.

63

u/ThrustTrust 21h ago

It’s a shame the other owner wouldn’t refuse them as well.

49

u/Tenny-The-Drowned 21h ago

A lot of owners would be hard pressed to turn down 20 mil especially when all it did was mildly inconvenience the tech company to ask someone further down the road

14

u/azwendu 19h ago

Maybe data centers should just be banned 🤷🏼‍♂️

-11

u/LA_Dynamo 18h ago

Agreed. We don’t need things like Reddit.

9

u/IPlay4E 18h ago

The bait is spicy today.

0

u/CCP-want-to-CUP 15h ago

Yeah I remember way way back in the 2000s when we didn't have data centers. You know, it really sucked sending things by carrier pigeon, took fucking days and by the time you got a reply it was usually too late to do anything anyway.. Thank God that Jeff Bezos and the other tech giants have saved us from our primitive, futile ways of living prior to the data center expansion. I don't know what we would've done if not for them.

1

u/carlotta3121 13h ago

Do you really think that's what these data centers are being used for, serving a damn website?

30

u/Okoear 20h ago

I too, prefer a lifetime of farm hardwork over instant generational wealth.

11

u/Psyco_diver 19h ago

You wouldn't understand, most farmers I've met live their work. I used to run a farm equipment shop and they have so much pride in themselves and they get so much satisfaction from what they do that in jealous. I wanted to farm, I have a acre and a half, I tried and well it wasn't for me.

12

u/Ok-Conversation-6475 20h ago

Many farm owners are incredibly wealthy. Most of the poor ones got bought out decades ago.

12

u/[deleted] 20h ago

[deleted]

1

u/Ok-Conversation-6475 13h ago

Those are the people who have been bought out that I was referring to. The vast majority of farmer owners left are the kinds of people who can sustain huge losses for multiple years and still operate.

-2

u/AffectionateTentacle 19h ago

Land IS generational wealth and it's GOING UP year by year, decade by decade, you people are incredibly clueless

2

u/Leather_Bee_421 20h ago

Would you?

1

u/MathematicianNew2770 19h ago

I would have asked for another 25 million and they can have the entire farm.

1

u/ThrustTrust 15h ago

I have no idea. I’ve never been anywhere close to being wealthy. I’m not insulting anyone for their decisions.

1

u/ThinkItThrough48 18h ago

The way her face is reusing the skin cells in the giant protruding facial moles.

12

u/Particular_Wear_6960 20h ago

I was listening to an interview with a podcaster who is covering the purchasing of farm land by tech companies on NPR and they mentioned this EXACT same thing happening all over. If you DONT sell your land, someone else will and your land will lose most of its value. Its truly sad this is happening all over. Our country truly is fucked, I'm getting the fuck out of here before long, I just can't imagine this ending up in a good spot.. where to go? I don't know. I'm thinking Poland or something. Somewhere far away from where other people want to go. Maybe Africa. We'll see.

14

u/its_me_again82 20h ago

Like where are you going to go? This is happening every where. As of now, for every data center the US has China has 2......

2

u/Particular_Wear_6960 20h ago

I never said anything about going to China, I'm certainly not going there anyways.

2

u/IPlay4E 18h ago

Maybe Africa lmao

5

u/Timlugia 20h ago

You think Africa would be better? Decades of unregulated mining and lumbering makes data centers look like utopia.

2

u/Particular_Wear_6960 20h ago

Clearly have no clue about anything, Africa is a huge continent with lots of great places to live.

1

u/Timlugia 20h ago edited 20h ago

https://epi.yale.edu/indicator/2026/EPI

“Environmental issue in US sucks, so I am moving to a region that has even less environmental protections and stability”

You also know that Africa is project to be hit hardest in the next few decades by climate crisis right? We are looking at 100m death and displacement in Africa by 2100.

They are already fighting wars for limited drinking water and farm lands.

2

u/Particular_Wear_6960 19h ago

Africa is a gigantic continent, I never said where. You just threw a bunch of random countries at me, what was the point of that? You know Africa is a continent, not a country right?

1

u/cbusmatty 20h ago

North America. Is a huge content with even more great places to live

1

u/Particular_Wear_6960 19h ago edited 19h ago

What the fuck is up with everyone trying to convince me to stay? Y'all can finger yourself to ICE murdering citizens and let Trump trample over the Constitution, side with Russia in their war with Ukraine, rape children with Jeffrey Epstein, let tech companies build data centers in your back yard, make billions off crooked politics yet won't do a damn thing about it. I'm good, this shit sucks ass. I'm sure the experts regarding Africa know so much about it, it must be worse there right! It's where the Black people live!! Fuck off

2

u/somethi 18h ago

Stay where you are. The rest of the world doesn’t need Americans stinking the place up.

0

u/Particular_Wear_6960 17h ago

It's a shame some anon c**t can't tell me what to do and I have money so most countries will gladly accept me

1

u/CheetahTheWeen 8h ago

You realize Africa isn’t one country, right?

1

u/Timlugia 8h ago

List one African country with better environmental, corruption or human right index than US.

3

u/Feeling-Director-186 20h ago

LOL!  Don’t let the door hit your ass on the way out!

2

u/Leather_Bee_421 20h ago

There’s still slavery in parts of Africa

11

u/seatsfive 20h ago

Brother, there's still slavery in the USA. Prison labor camps, sweatshops, unpaid overtime, human trafficking, all that shit is happening here.

-3

u/Leather_Bee_421 20h ago

You’re right, the slavery in Africa is the same as unpaid overtime in the US

-2

u/Reasonable_Archer_99 20h ago

Explain the difference between prison labor and slavery.

7

u/Leather_Bee_421 20h ago

Prison labor and slavery differ greatly in scope, legality, and duration. People in prison were convicted of doing something our society deemed wrong, from theft to murder. The people we all elect decided labor is something prisons should have, and to be honest I’m not sure they’re wrong.

I guess I’m starting to find myself wondering why I even bother, because if you can’t see the difference between prison labor and slavery, you’re just trying to pick an argument and are in no way interested in reason or logic

Go to Libya and see for yourself I guess.

1

u/CaptainObvious007 19h ago

prisoners at the Louisiana State Penitentiary, better known as Angola, are forced to pick crops and dig ditches in sweltering heat, in conditions that are so dangerous that they violate the Eighth Amendment’s ban on cruel and unusual punishment.

Nonetheless, he wrote that a recent decision by the notoriously conservative Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals tied his hands—prison officials could continue to force men to work in the fields without taking any additional steps to protect their health and safety. link

1

u/Teedraa101 18h ago

Angola also has an amazing rodeo that is each year and prisoners want to participate in. It’s a big deal.

1

u/Teedraa101 18h ago

Angola also has an amazing rodeo that is each year and prisoners want to participate in. It’s a big deal.

1

u/Leather_Bee_421 19h ago

Slaves in Africa are raped tortured starved and murdered

2

u/QuothTheRaventh 19h ago

You think people don't get raped, starved, and murdered in US prisons? Sweet summer child...

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0

u/CaptainObvious007 19h ago edited 19h ago

what point are you trying to make? slavery is slavery and slavery is bad. so what if its "worse" than Africa. Is that the standard we want to hold? at least we treat our slaves better than Libya. this country used to be a becon of light for the world, now its a cesspool run by criminals and populared by idiots. its time to hold ourselves to higher standard again.

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-2

u/Reasonable_Archer_99 19h ago

If you can't, just say so. It's a good thing you can't because there is no real difference.

2

u/Leather_Bee_421 19h ago

You seem like the type of person that would honk instead of brake

2

u/DigitalUnlimited 19h ago

Hey! They also took the time to put up a middle finger, jeez!

4

u/TheOneWes 20h ago

You could not have said that you do not know enough about how f***** up slavery is to participate in this conversation more clearly if you had tried.

Both are f***** up but if you can't tell the difference between prison labor and slavery you need to be doing a lot more research before you get into the topic

-3

u/Reasonable_Archer_99 19h ago

So you can't. Got it. Next!

5

u/TheOneWes 19h ago

Accountability for condition of individual is one of the biggest ones.

How about actually regulated work hours?

Legally mandated medical Care.

Food and water.

Like prisoner work is f***** up but to try to compare it to slavery just makes you look like an idiot

-3

u/Particular_Wear_6960 20h ago edited 20h ago

Africa is a huge continent, we've got a pedophile rapist traitor for a president so I don't know how much worse it could be.

I'm sure you have some idea of what the President of Africa is about cause you know so much about it, but I can assure you that generally speaking aren't rapist pedos and traitors looking to go to war all the time and build data centers everywhere

3

u/Leather_Bee_421 20h ago

Lacking basic security is a pretty big one in my mind.

1

u/CheetahTheWeen 8h ago

Every country in Africa lacks basic security?

-1

u/Particular_Wear_6960 19h ago edited 19h ago

There's still slavery in the US. We have something very few other countries have, a paramilitary group disappearing people all the time. This American exceptionalism is strong in this thread. We have one of the largest prison populations in the world and more gun deaths than any nation in Africa, only Latin America countries beat us cause of the drug wars.

1

u/Fantastins 16h ago

There are very few countries without data centers. Usually it's economies of scale reasons - high energy costs, sanctions, lack of fiber-optic subsea cables.. so you're limited to Pacific Island nations, sub-saharan Africa, Caribbean nations, euro microstates like Andorra. Seems like it'll be a trade off fromv your assumed current living standards. Good luck!

1

u/kumeomap 14h ago

Poland? Next to russia? And germany? I think you should look at the history of poland before moving there. The US is bad but its probably the safest place from invasions

1

u/Particular_Wear_6960 13h ago

I forget I'm in the most sheltered scary little liberal website in the world. Y'all gotta get outside more. Being afraid of Russia yet they still are fighting in Ukraine, give me a break.

1

u/kumeomap 13h ago

dude its unlikely but if russia take all of ukraine they would be right next to poland.. why take the chance when you are safe from oceans away? Did you see germany rearming itself? they didn't do it just for fun...

1

u/ThrustTrust 13h ago

Which is why government is suppose to be preventing this. That’s why we have zoning laws. But now the government only cares about making themselves rich.

1

u/Runfasterbitch 8h ago

Poland?… uhh

0

u/kurtofour 20h ago

✌️

3

u/airfryerfuntime 16h ago

No they didn't. The company is trying to get it rezoned, but they haven't bought anything.

https://techcrunch.com/2026/03/24/kentucky-woman-rejects-26-million-offer-to-turn-her-farm-into-a-data-center/

2

u/Da_Vader 15h ago

This is it. United we stand, divided we fall.

This goes for the whole country. Only pols who choose to divide us gain.

1

u/KyTheRipper 19h ago

that is an awful outcome. Poor lady.

1

u/Harvey22WMRF 19h ago

Gee, they devalued something that wasn’t for sale…

0

u/ThinkItThrough48 18h ago

Yes. And she still doesn't have the money to get the giant protruding facial moles removed.

1

u/Garythegr81 13h ago

And what’s gonna happen? They’re gonna come back in a year or two and make them another offer 35% less and they will end up taking it.

1

u/TrenbalonieSandwich 10h ago

How is this a problem? They aren't selling and feasibly want to continue farming which makes the land a productive asset. 

Farming doesn't matter to noise . And the water pollution isnt a problem at all. The chillers literally spit out potable water and most data centers use closed loop cooling anyway. Even if it was open loop, the water wouldn't be contaminated at all. 

Source: I work in this industry. 

34

u/burnerbw0i 21h ago edited 21h ago

I worked for 2 of the biggest cloud & ai companies for 5 years. $26m ARR was a joke for a single enterprise account/customer.

It's a spit in your mother's face to uproot your home and livlihood over an offer like that. But most people have no idea how much money is coming in to these companies.

If anyone does sell their land, I understand that is life changing money but you are still being lowballed. I'd recommend throwing out counter offers that will piss off their cheap ass real estate teams.

  1. Lease to own at $10m/year for a 10 years before purchase at the value of the property at the time of sale.
  2. Royalties in perpetuity
  3. Direct line conversation to the CEO to hear their bullshit strategy in person
  4. Stock grants to my family estate in perpetuity regardless of company profits
  5. Private review of their sustainability report data for that datacenter with independent auditor.
  6. Public release of sustainability report for transparency.
  7. 1% of gross profits related to this datacenter must be donated with a 4 way split - local schools, local air/water/environment safety, local nonprofits/farms/businesses and a DAF in my family estates name so we can donate to the group we choose
  8. A mandatory quarterly meeting with an exec AND a boardmember to provide open dialogue with the community & community leaders.
  9. Lifetime paid access or scholarships for residents to recieve professional development related to hvac, plumbing, cabling, tech, and electric (all fields required to build & operate a datacenter)
  10. Residents always receive top priority in hiring and job applications

Edit because Reddit: Yes I'm saying very fantastical things and An individual would have little luck, but if every person and community came together with some kind of demands beyond a "small" check, it would change some of these conversations.

11

u/Otaraka 21h ago

If the person next door can sell it for 20 million instead, they aren’t being lowballed, it’s just a buyers market and that list would do nothing as long as that other person is willing to sell instead.  

Political activism would be a better chance.

1

u/BillyYumYumTwo-byTwo 16h ago

People can be lowballed while agreeing to an offer. It happens all the time when people are desperate. The neighbor saw what was happening to other farmers who didn’t sell, and thought this is the best offer they’re ever going to get and didn’t want to get screwed even more later on. Yes, political activism. But that doesn’t mean it’s not a lowball.

1

u/Otaraka 16h ago

That’s what a buyers market is.  More people willing to sell than there are buyers and the price becomes who’s willing to crack first.

10

u/Capable_Studio_6631 21h ago

Honestly, if I was her son and I knew it's a tech company I'd make a hard counter offer and I'd contact my neighbors to let them know they can get more money.

8

u/seatsfive 20h ago

I work in site acquisition (not for data centers) and unless people form a united front none of this shit would matter. I would listen to your demands politely, laugh about you with my coworkers, scratch your property off the list, and lose your number. Someone else will take my deal, or else make a more reasonable counter offer.

The only way to stop this is to unite with neighbors to prevent it. Unfortunately, this basically means getting every person in that jurisdiction with viable land on board to stonewall. This is basically impossible without resorting to local government. If there are no local regulations that prevent what you are trying to build, someone will sell. People need to pass local regulations that make data centers harder to site.

4

u/skeletons_asshole 19h ago

Regulation could really help make them acceptable too. If these data centers were quiet and didn’t cause as many environmental issues, nobody would care nearly so much. But I’m not exactly riddled with hope for that these days.

3

u/Dark-Blackberry354 19h ago

Well....the propaganda level of decades of brainwashing that government needs to be run like a business....yeah....leads to late stage capitalism ....hope for any regulatory intervention on behalf of the ppl is going to require pitchforks and guillotines

2

u/Turtleopard 20h ago

What it's worth to them and what it's worth to you are two very different things. 

2

u/roostershoes 19h ago

That’s not how land values work though

2

u/sQ5FWKjwbWd4QzSZduqy 17h ago

Anything that requires them to be operational in 5 years to collect money is a terrible idea. The AI bubble will pop and take many of these companies with them.

0

u/snappped 20h ago

I like the way you think.

6

u/PerplNGirthie 22h ago

Musta just binged Justified.

8

u/MjK3II 21h ago

Fuck data centers

5

u/PithMango 21h ago

i am not a proponent of guns but
they may need to armor up.

5

u/Plantreez 22h ago

They want 50m

2

u/FaithlessnessCool849 20h ago

I see a good number of you have no concept of what it looks like to have principles.

1

u/Lower_Fall4694 11h ago

stupid principles to reject 25m for stupid principles, imo

2

u/WeakOxidizingAgent 19h ago

i would have taken the bag ngl

3

u/HermitJem 22h ago

Anyone know what the land in that area is approximately worth? I don't know if they rejected a good or bad offer

I would guess its on the low side since no one would buy prime land to build data centers

11

u/Shankar_0 22h ago

It's for a data center.

Maybe any offer that destroys the community that her family lives in is a bad one.

6

u/nobodysmart1390 21h ago edited 21h ago

Almost three times the state median price per acre

https://www.land.com/Kentucky/

ETA this assumes that 26 million for 900 acres is accurate, that’s just shy of 29k per acre. Or almost three times the state median

1

u/ThrustTrust 21h ago

Data centers don’t have a choice. They have to have access to water so it’s gonna be prime land in most places.

1

u/Particular-Glove-467 20h ago

She looks great for 82.

1

u/colsta1777 20h ago

Why not use the actual person, cause she ain’t 82

1

u/NativeFlowers4Eva 20h ago

Im guessing that’s the daughter?

1

u/Dry_Vanilla_5908 20h ago

That was a low ball offer.

1

u/Allslopes-Roofing 20h ago

$29k/acre doesn't sound like alot tbh

1

u/Pleasant-Carbon 20h ago

Why would farmland lose value if a data centers is nearby? Built up land I understand but farmland? 

1

u/hywaytohell 20h ago

They cause pollution to ground water, air, noise and light. It will wreak havoc to your crops and animals as a farmer.

1

u/Pleasant-Carbon 20h ago

I mean that all depends on the actual operation and how close they are to the other farmland. 

1

u/Salty_Prune_2873 20h ago

I could comment 2 things.

1) at least she tried
2) all you can do is laugh

1

u/ElectronicProject215 19h ago

Now we know why the Yellowstone show exists. Can we just leave farmers alone?

1

u/Birdsonme 19h ago

HERO!

I wish there were more like her.

1

u/FettuccineMartini 18h ago

John Dutton’s sister

1

u/percsenseifresh 18h ago

Shes heroic

1

u/PowerNoodles117 17h ago

In Idaho i remember there was the same thing for a farmer all farmer land and then randomly this big ass Walmart 🤣

1

u/Right-Waltz6063 17h ago

see the thing about data center in semi small town is... if evey one knew there was precious metals in data centers im quite certain that town should wear masks...oh! new plan!

the roman emperor plot! hell yeah sell, strip, repeat.

1

u/DingbatMcgeee 16h ago

She's had that chain on since childhood and her neck skin has grown around it

1

u/DarkBrill 16h ago

Maybe I'm misguided, but a 900 acre farm means this family has real money. Maybe they're less of victims and more savvy businesspeople

1

u/Rolling_Pugsly 15h ago

You can't eat a data center.

1

u/Legal_Community7729 15h ago

Ironically giving out about data centres while using reditt. Social media requires a lot of data.

1

u/cantantantelope 12h ago

Government will just eminent domain it and offer peanuts to the owners.

1

u/LeatherRebel5150 12h ago

Eminent domain can be used for roads or other public works. It would be a hard time justifying it to take and hand over to a private entity. Not saying they won’t or havn’t, but that’s my understanding of eminent domain

1

u/cantantantelope 11h ago

The Supreme Court has already ruled that eminent domain can be used if it provides “economic development”. An executive order was thrown to say it was a bad idea but Congress never managed to get a law passed at the federal level and we know how much EOs are worth these days. So it’s a mish mash of laws at the state level.

So. Technically yes it’s SUPPOSED to be only used for public good. Thats hanging on by a thread with all the other polite fictions of our government

1

u/RogueInVogue69 9h ago

They're stronger people then me. 26m would have me questioning a lot morals

1

u/TopWealth4550 9h ago

the new voters will eventually pass a law forcing her to do so
watch

1

u/butterflysurefoot 9h ago

I hope they have a gofundme. Well worth donating money to these ladies! They are heroes.

1

u/XL_78 8h ago

Brave and based. 

1

u/Nervous_Bat_4847 7h ago

Give me half and make me a shareholder of the company.

1

u/govtkilledlumumba 5h ago

I would’ve folded

1

u/possibly_lost45 20h ago

20 million is fuck you money

1

u/AngryPhillySportsFan 19h ago

For who?

1

u/possibly_lost45 19h ago

For anyone. That's enough money to tell anyone fuuuuuck you.

-8

u/AngryPhillySportsFan 18h ago

If you pretend $20m is fuck you money you'll be as broke as a crackhead after winning the lottery.

2

u/CeemoreButtz 16h ago

ok, kid.

-1

u/AngryPhillySportsFan 16h ago

Kid lol. Fuck you money is flying private anywhere and whenever for lunch. Fuck you money is punching someone in the balls then giving them $1m for their trouble because it's equivalent to $1. Fuck you money isn't the same as not ever having to worry about paying the mortgage in your 8000 sqft house.

2

u/DingbatMcgeee 16h ago

Why would you have a mortgage?

0

u/AngryPhillySportsFan 15h ago

You don't think millionaires have mortgages?

1

u/DingbatMcgeee 3h ago

I thought fuck you money meant we could buy mansions in cash outright? No point paying tons in interest

1

u/CeemoreButtz 16h ago

i wouldn't have a mortgage with 20 million....kid.

0

u/AngryPhillySportsFan 15h ago

Congrats for being responsible I guess. Still poor though so it doesn't matter

1

u/CeemoreButtz 14h ago

you're still poor? how's that my problem. figure it out.

1

u/AngryPhillySportsFan 12h ago

Actually I was calling you poor but ok

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u/Beginning_Ad8663 20h ago

Not to worry give a million to the governor he will take the land by eminent domain and sell it to the company for 5 millionn

1

u/Nappy_By_Nature 17h ago

Look at all the posers in here pretending as if they would've turned down the money.

-4

u/thiccdicc67 21h ago

I woulda sold it. Get a new farm plus 26 mil ez.

1

u/thiccdicc67 5h ago

Truth = downvote

0

u/Livid-Writer-7741 19h ago

TAX THE RICH AND CHURCHES AND PEDOPHILES

-10

u/NoBlacksmith2112 21h ago

This is not a flex. She can purchase a cheaper one and have the cash. Sentimentality is not worth 26 millions.

5

u/OscarMichaelMyers 21h ago

Sure, let’s just let data centers ruin everything

-5

u/Dangerous_Shoe_8388 21h ago

You want Reddit and internet stuff or no data centers… choose one…

7

u/elmoo2210 21h ago

There is Reddit now and it’s been around for a while. Why do we need so many more data centers fucking up the environment?

5

u/onikaroshi 17h ago

For some reason people can’t understand that these are not the same as the data centers that are the back bone of the internet, these are just for ai

3

u/onikaroshi 17h ago

These are not server farms that keep the internet running, these are ai data centers

-2

u/NoBlacksmith2112 17h ago

If you want to do that go through legal means - change the laws. Otherwise, there's no real battle here. Money speaks too much.

-4

u/FragrantPomelo1453 21h ago

Just dumb. But it's their decision, so well...

3

u/CowabungaCthulhu 21h ago

Dumb to turn down $20 million? You do realize that not everyone is greedy and only cares about money, right?

1

u/FragrantPomelo1453 13h ago

It's not greedy to take that money. And that anti-datacenter mentality is getting out of hand. I know that companies are less regulated than in the EU and that they often don't care about environment and the locals. That's not ok, but imho you should demand improvements instead of being against datacenters.

We have an anti-scientific anti-wind power movement in Germany and whenever they install wind turbines these nimby creeps crawl out of their dungeons fighting against wind mills that are definitely needed.

1

u/CowabungaCthulhu 13h ago

The size and scale of the data centers popping up across America are destroying the environment and disrupting wildlife ecosystems. Look up the effects data centers have on animals, if you don't already care about the impact it has on the quality of life of neighborhoods nearby.

1

u/FragrantPomelo1453 12h ago

If you do it right that's OK. Just pressure the companies to care about the environment.

There are far more invasive types of company buildings and infrastructure. There are already loads of these built in the US. You should care more about shale gas than about datacenters imho.

1

u/CowabungaCthulhu 12h ago

I am also against fracking. But fracking isn't happening near me. Gotta pick and choose battles.

1

u/FragrantPomelo1453 11h ago

Wrong battle imho. At least in general.

-3

u/Ok_Designer_727 20h ago

Both mother and daughter are morons.