{"id":6730,"date":"2026-08-16T22:36:28","date_gmt":"2026-08-16T22:36:28","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/metrotransitreview.com\/?p=6730"},"modified":"2026-08-16T22:36:28","modified_gmt":"2026-08-16T22:36:28","slug":"country-hick-kentucky-farmers-reject-ai-companys-26m-offer-to-build-data-centers-on-land","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/metrotransitreview.com\/?p=6730","title":{"rendered":"‘Country hick’ Kentucky farmers reject AI company’s $26M offer to build data centers on land"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n

A couple of self-described \u201ccountry hick\u201d farmers blasted an AI company\u2019s plan to build a data center on their Kentucky property after rejecting a whopping multimillion-dollar sum for their humble farmland.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Read more UC-Berkeley math prof says she has to teach fractions to calculus students because standards have fallen so far<\/a><\/p>\n

Delsia Bare and her mother Ida Huddleston initially agreed to sell their plots in Maysville for a combined total of $26.4 million when initially approached by representatives of an unknown AI company, the Wall Street Journal reported.<\/p>\n

But when the mother-daughter duo, a couple of self-described \u201ccountry hicks,\u201d learned that the company planned to build data centers on the land to power artificial intelligence bots, they swiftly backed out.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cKick rocks and don\u2019t come back,\u201d Bare told the reps after she and her mom successfully canned the deal.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Bare said she\u2019d decided to back out of the deal fearing she\u2019d be \u201cheld accountable\u201d by higher powers for selling the family farm just to have it replaced by an AI hub.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cIf I step off of this piece of property and it becomes something for an AI hub, then I have failed to occupy and I can be held accountable for that on the Judgment hour,\u201d she told the outlet.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

The deal from the anonymous business \u2014 believed to be connected to Meta, according to WSJ \u2014 stood to have the duo trade the land, which had been in the family for around 200 years, for the handsome payout well above market rate.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Bare was offered $48,000 per acre for 463 acres of land, while Huddleston stood to collect $60,000 a piece for 71 acres of land \u2014 totalling a combined $26.48 million, the two told the outlet.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Read more Gillian Anderson reveals \u2018secret\u2019 same-sex relationship as a teen as actress makes rare comments about her sexuality<\/a><\/p>\n

Meta said no decision has been made about working in the area, in a statement to the Journal.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The fight over data centers continues to deeply divide the town, as many welcome the possible economic boon that it may provide and have already agreed to sell their land to the company for millions, the publication reported.\u00a0<\/p>\n

In addition to bucking the multimillion dollar deal, Bare and others in the town have also decided to file lawsuits challenging the construction of the centers in Maysville \u2013 including one that would take neighbors to court.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\n<\/div>\n

\u201cSome of those people would have gone their entire lives without being brought into a courtroom,\u201d Tyler McHugh, an economic development director who liaisons with the unnamed AI company, told the publication.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Bare, who is nearly blind, and Huddleston, who walks with a cane, are surprised by their unlikely position as stalwarts standing against the data center\u2019s construction.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cI never thought I\u2019d be in a battle with a data center,\u201d Bare said. \u201cI thought I was about as far out in the boondocks as you could get.\u201d<\/p>\n

Read more Harvard professor slammed for using AI to write to write anti-Trump op-ed: \u2018Worst slop I\u2019ve seen\u2019<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Delsia Bare and her mother Ida Huddleston initially agreed to sell their plots in Maysville, Kentucky for a combined total of $26.4 million when initially approached by representatives of an unknown AI company, the Wall Street Journal reported.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":6729,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-6730","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-us-news"],"yoast_head":"\n'Country hick' Kentucky farmers reject AI company's $26M offer to build data centers on land - Metro Transit Review<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/metrotransitreview.com\/?p=6730\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"'Country hick' Kentucky farmers reject AI company's $26M offer to build data centers on land - 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