Amsterdam Police Detain 150 to 200 at Microsoft Data Centre Protest
Matthew Leo · Published November 7, 2026 · World News
Dutch police said they detained an estimated 150 to 200 people on suspicion of trespassing on Friday, November 6, after activists occupied the construction site of a Microsoft data centre in western Amsterdam. Some protesters climbed a crane. Outside the site, a separate demonstration went ahead over the energy demands of new data centres.
The distinction matters to the people who turned up. Dutch broadcaster NOS reported that Fossielvrij held its demonstration in a designated area. A different group entered the construction site. Pro-Palestinian protesters were among those inside, while Fossielvrij’s objections centred on fossil fuel use. The police figure was an estimate of detentions, not a tally of convictions.
What is being built in Westpoort?
The project is a construction site, not a running Microsoft facility. Developer Pure Data Centres describes a six-acre campus with three towers, each 85 metres tall, and a private electricity substation. It says the full 78 megawatts of planned capacity have already been leased and that it is investing more than €1 billion. The 78-megawatt figure describes the planned capacity; it does not tell residents how much electricity the finished campus will draw in any given hour.
Pure DC asked the occupiers to leave safely and offered to discuss the development with local stakeholders, according to Reuters. Microsoft said it respected peaceful protest but objected to unlawful conduct and actions that put people at risk. Neither response settles the question raised outside the gates: what commitments should a developer have to make to the community before a project of this size goes ahead?
The wider campaign wants a pause
The Amsterdam protest coincided with two days of demonstrations planned across Europe. Campaigners in the Stop Dirty Data Centres campaign are seeking a pause on large new developments while governments examine their effects on electricity, water and communities. Their demand concerns future construction; it does not call for existing facilities to shut down.
European officials also see a cost in relying on computing capacity elsewhere. EU technology chief Henna Virkkunen told Reuters that Europe needs capacity of its own, while residents need confidence that new projects will not drive up bills or threaten the power supply. In Westpoort, those two arguments concern a specific piece of land: the developer says every megawatt is already spoken for, while protesters are still contesting whether the campus should be built there at all.
Tags: data centres, AI infrastructure, Microsoft