A Kentucky mother and daughter have turned down a multimillion-dollar offer for their family farmland after learning the property could be used for an artificial intelligence data center.

Delsia Bare and her mother, Ida Huddleston, had initially agreed to sell their respective properties in Maysville for a combined $26.48 million, according to reporting by The Wall Street Journal cited by the New York Post.

The offer came from representatives of an unidentified AI company that wanted to acquire the land for a data center. The property had remained in Bare and Huddleston’s family for roughly 200 years.

“Even if I had $26 million,” said Huddleston, “I’d want to sit here in my chair, and have my coffee and eat my food where I always do.”

The ‘Country Hicks’ Who Refused $26 Million from an AI Data Center https://t.co/Yby4MP9TDm — Meridith McGraw (@meridithmcgraw) August 16, 2026

Bare and Huddleston later changed their minds after learning more about the proposed development.

Gold. Upgraded. Buy real gold from $1. Store it in America. Sell it with one click.

Bare, who described herself and her mother as “country hicks,” gave the company representatives a blunt response after the deal was called off.

“Kick rocks and don’t come back,” Bare told the representatives, according to the Journal.

The proposed sale would have paid substantially more than ordinary farmland prices. Bare was offered $48,000 per acre for 463 acres, while Huddleston was offered $60,000 per acre for 71 acres.

Together, the properties would have generated approximately $26.48 million.

This Could Be the Most Important Video Gun Owners Watch All Year

Bare said her decision was also influenced by her belief that she would be held accountable for what happened to the property after a sale.

“If 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,” she told the outlet.

The proposed data center project has become a contentious issue in Maysville, with residents divided over the potential economic benefits and the impact of converting farmland for industrial use.

Some property owners in the area have agreed to sell their land for millions of dollars, according to the Journal.

Others, including Bare, have opposed the project and pursued legal action challenging construction of the proposed centers.

Another new data center project that broke ground in Texas

This is the Royse City Giga Data Center Project being put right in the middle of rural country life This data center will use the equivalent of 35,000 American homes in power and hundreds of thousands of gallons of… pic.twitter.com/4hAu8OJQD4 — Wall Street Apes (@WallStreetApes) August 17, 2026

The opposition has reached the courts, including a lawsuit that could put some neighbors on opposite sides of litigation.

“Some of those people would have gone their entire lives without being brought into a courtroom,” Tyler McHugh, an economic development director who liaisons with the unnamed AI company, told the publication.

The company behind the proposal has not been publicly identified. Meta has been linked to the potential project, but the company told the Journal that no decision has been made about working in the area.

The dispute comes as communities across rural America face growing interest from technology companies seeking land and infrastructure for data centers supporting artificial intelligence.

For Bare and Huddleston, however, the issue is personal.

Their land has been part of their family for generations, and the prospect of replacing that property with an AI facility ultimately outweighed the financial incentive.

Bare, who is nearly blind, and Huddleston, who walks with a cane, said they were surprised to find themselves opposing a major development project.

“I never thought I’d be in a battle with a data center,” Bare said. “I thought I was about as far out in the boondocks as you could get.”

The decision leaves the future of the proposed Maysville data center project uncertain as legal challenges and disagreements among local property owners continue.

Gold is the oldest answer. SoundMoney makes owning it as easy as the apps you already use.

The opinions expressed by contributors and/or content partners are their own and do not necessarily reflect the views of LifeZette. Contact us for guidelines on submitting your own commentary.