Ida Huddleston and Delsia Bare have rejected a combined $26.48 million offer to sell their family's Mason County,Kentucky, farmland. The land was targeted for a massivve 2.2-gigawatt data center project, but the pair chose to preserve their ancestral legacy over the payout.

Advertisement

The $26.48 million price tag for Mason County soil

The financial offers presented to the landowners were staggering, reflecting the desperation of tech developers to secure specific geographic footprints. According to the report, Delsia Bare was offered $48,000 per acre for 463 acres, while Ida Huddleston was offered $60,000 per acre for 71 acres. Together, these offers totaled $26.48 million for land that the family has cultivated for nearly two centuries.

For Ida Huddleston, the value of the land is not measured in dollars but in lineage. Huddleston's grandfather and great-grandfather farmed this soil, growing wheat during the Great Depression. This refusal represents a growing tension in rural America, where the ancestral value of land is increasingly clashing with the aggressive expansion of the digital economy.

A 2.2-gigawatt hyperscale hub linked to Meta

The proposed project is not a standard server farm but a 2.2-gigawatt hyperscale data center, a facility designed to suppport the massive computing power required for artificial intelligence. As reported by the WSJ, the project has been linked to Meta, although a spokesperson for Meta has stated that no final decision has been made regarding a move into the area.

This development is part of a global trend where AI firms are scouring rural regions for land that can support immense power and water requirements. However, this transition is not without fear; Delsia Bare has explicitly stated her belief that artificial intelligence will lead to the "destruction of the human race," framing her refusal as a moral and existential imperative rather than a financial one.

The May rezoning of 2,000 nearby acres

While Huddleston and Bare held their ground, the project has already made significant inroads in Mason County. In May, the Mason County Fiscal Court approved the rezoning of more than 2,000 neaarby acres to facilitate the data center's footprint. This administrative shift has prompted Delsia Bare to join a lawsuit intended to halt the project entirely.

The pressure on the community is uneven. While some residents have resisted, others have already cashed out. The report notes that the developers successfully purchased a mobile home park, displacing 28 residents—many of whom were retirees on fixed incomes—who accepted the payouts to leave.

400 six-figure jobs versus a "scam"

Local officials in Kentucky have championed the project as an economic windfall, claiming the data center would create approximately 400 permanent, six-figure jobs and 1,500 temporary construction roles. These figures are intended to paint the project as a catalyst for regional prosperity.

Ida Huddleston, however, remains entirely unconvinced by these promises. She has dismissed the claims of job creation as a "scam," suggesting that the projected economic benefits are a lure used by developers to alienate landowners from their property. For Huddleston, the risk to the local water supply and the installation of new gas and power lines outweigh the promise of high-paying corporate roles.

Who is the mystery company behind the data center?

Despite the scale of the project, a significant gap remains in the public record: the official identity of the developer. While the project has been linked to Meta, the company continues to operate through a "mystery company" veil, leaving the community to speculate on who exactly is directing the acquisition of Mason County land.

This lack of transparency raises critical questions about accountability. It remains unclear who will be responsible for the long-term environmental impact on the local water table or whether the promised 400 jobs will actually materialize once the facility is automated. Until the developer steps out of the shadows, the legal battle led by Delsia Bare is likely to intensify.