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As artificial intelligence fuels a massive data center construction boom across America, some landowners are cashing in on life-changing offers while others are refusing to sell at any price.
That contrast was on full display in Kentucky and Pennsylvania. In one case, a farming family reportedly turned down a $26 million offer to preserve land that has been in their family for generations. In the other, a struggling farm became the source of a $22 million windfall that transformed a couple's financial future.
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Ida Huddleston and her family rejected a $26 million offer for part of their 1,200-acre farm outside Maysville, Kentucky, according to WKRC-TV. The land was being targeted for a proposed AI data center by an unidentified company.
Huddleston's daughter, Delsia Bare, said the family never seriously considered selling.
"I'll stay and hold and feed a nation," Bare told WKRC-TV. "Twenty-six million [dollars] doesn't mean anything."
The family said their roots on the property stretch back generations. Bare added that relatives farmed the land through the Great Depression and helped produce food during difficult times in American history.
Huddleston was skeptical about promises that a data center would bring jobs and economic growth to the area.
"They call us old stupid farmers, you know, but we're not," she told WKRC-TV. "We know whenever our food is disappearing, our lands are disappearing, and we don't have any water."
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Despite the family's refusal, developers reportedly revised their plans using neighboring properties whose owners agreed to sell, meaning the project could still move forward nearby.
A few hundred miles away in Pennsylvania, another farming family faced a similar offer and came to a very different conclusion.
David and Marilee Kiliti initially thought developers were joking when they suggested their 89-acre farm could be worth more than $20 million, according to The Wall Street Journal.
The couple had spent years struggling to make a living from the property. David took construction jobs while Marilee worked as a forklift driver before retiring.
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