Kentucky Farmer Refuses to Sell Land to AI Firm for $26 Million, Declares Family ‘Fed a Nation’ for Generations
by David Lindfield
A northern Kentucky family is refusing to sell off generations of farmland, despite a massive $26 million offer from a major artificial intelligence (AI) company seeking to build a data center on the property.
The decision underscores a growing clash between large-scale tech expansion and longstanding agricultural communities, as families weigh financial windfalls against heritage, food production, and control over their land.
Family Rejects Lucrative Deal to Preserve Land
Ida Huddleston and her family own roughly 1,200 acres of farmland outside Maysville.
In April, an unnamed Fortune 100 AI company approached them with an offer to purchase about half the property.
Huddleston’s daughter, Delsia Bare, made clear the family has no intention of selling, regardless of the price.
“Stay and hold and feed a nation,” Bare told Local 12 News.
“My grandfather and great-grandfather and a whole bunch of family have all lived here for years, paid taxes on it, fed a nation off of it,” she said.
“Even raised wheat through the Depression and kept bread lines up in the United States of America when people didn’t have anything else.”