A European anti-AI wave! Acid liquid water balloons thrown at a Microsoft data center construction site

The climate action group “Extinction Rebellion” has admitted that in the late hours of July 15 to 16, it threw water balloons containing hydrogen peroxide, acetic acid, salt, and acrylic paint at a construction site for a data center belonging to Microsoft in Amsterdam. The action group claims that the mixture can corrode concrete and accelerate the rusting of rebar. The developer, Pure Data Centres Group, said it has not tested the substances yet, but that this time there was no damage and the construction was not delayed. Amsterdam police have received a report and launched an investigation.
(Background: Trump pressures seven major tech giants to sign a pledge to “cover the cost of higher electricity bills”! AI data centers consume 12% of all U.S. electricity, and voters’ anger is the driving force)
(Background add-on: AI compute is an electricity-draining monster! Chevron wins a 20-year deal with Microsoft to build a dedicated natural gas power plant, with the first power coming online in 2028)

Key summary

• Extinction Rebellion threw acidic water balloons at Microsoft’s Amsterdam construction site in the late night of July 15 to 16
• The water balloons contained hydrogen peroxide, acetic acid, salt, and acrylic paint; the action group announced the recipe themselves, and it has not been tested
• Pure DC, the developer, says there was zero damage and zero delay; police have filed a case; the site’s capacity is 78 MW

Extinction Rebellion has admitted it. According to The Register, the group, in the late night of July 15 to 16, threw a batch of water balloons over a fence, smashing them onto concrete at the construction site of a Microsoft data center in Amsterdam. The balloons were filled with hydrogen peroxide, acetic acid, salt, and acrylic paint. The recipe was disclosed by the action group itself. They claim that this combination will corrode concrete and cause the rebar to rust faster.

The construction site is in the port area of Amsterdam near Sloterdijk station. The developer is Pure Data Centres Group. The project consists of three 85-meter-tall tower buildings, with each building equipped with 26 MW of server rooms, for a total capacity of 78 MW, and all of it has already been leased out. Local media identified the only tenant as Microsoft.

No one has verified the effects of the recipe

What needs to be clarified first is that the claim “this bucket of liquid can corrode concrete” is currently only from the action group itself. Pure DC said it has not sent those materials for testing yet, so it cannot independently confirm the ingredients. But “if that’s true, this kind of behavior could seriously harm protesters or workers, and is irresponsible and dangerous.”

As for the actual outcome, the developer was blunt. Amsterdam police received a report and launched an investigation. Pure DC said, “This time, there was no damage of any kind, and the project was not delayed. But this type of conduct constitutes serious vandalism; we will pursue it to the fullest extent of the law.” Microsoft did not respond to The Register’s request for comment.

A similar incident happened to the mine back then

This time Extinction Rebellion joined Dutch climate group Geef Tegengas in an action targeting this data center. The action group’s listed reasons include electricity use (they claim that a Microsoft facility in the Netherlands alone consumes 1% of the country’s electricity), cooling water, and tech industry layoffs accompanying the AI boom. The Register also noted that Extinction Rebellion ties the data center and Microsoft’s cooperation with Israel into the same narrative, accusing AI infrastructure of worsening the climate crisis while also contributing to deaths. These figures and allegations all come from the action group and have not been verified by third parties.

This script will feel familiar to encrypted readers. Electricity use is amplified for scrutiny, local residents organize to oppose it, and noise and water use become key talking points at public hearings—Bitcoin mining has been put through a full round of global review. The difference is that mines later managed to produce data to counterattack. Paradigm’s research placed the global energy consumption of Bitcoin mining at 0.23% and also argued that mines’ interruptible load is, in fact, a grid-balancing tool.

A more concrete layer is electricity pricing. The external costs of AI infrastructure are moving from the tech section to the everyday-life section. In the U.S., political moves have already been forced out; in the State of the Union, Trump demanded that tech giants sign rate-protection pledges, requiring them to absorb the cost of price increases themselves. In Europe, without going through parliament, protesters went straight to stand outside the construction site fence.

Frequently asked questions

Why did Extinction Rebellion attack Microsoft’s data center?

The action group listed three reasons, including electricity use (claiming that a Microsoft facility in the Netherlands alone consumes 1% of the country’s electricity), cooling water, and tech industry layoffs accompanying the AI boom. It also included Microsoft’s cooperation with Israel in the narrative. These claims come from the action group and have not been verified by a third party.

Can acidic water balloons really destroy a data center’s concrete structure?

Pure DC said it has not tested the substances, so it cannot confirm the ingredients. But this time there was no damage and no construction delay. Acids and salt do corrode cement slurry and accelerate rebar corrosion—the key factors are the dosage and contact time. A few water balloons splashed onto the surface of a formed structure have limited effect.