The activists warn that the region of Schaffhausen in eastern Switzerland is becoming a “hotspot” for new data centres.
Keystone-SDA
A day after a protest camp against the construction of an AI data centre in Beringen, Schaffhausen, was cleared, activists have set up camp in nearby Germany. They now intend to protest from Tengen, which is situated near the Swiss border.
Following yesterday’s “police raid” on the protest camp in Benken, canton Zurich, activists who are denouncing the construction of an AI data centre in Beringen have found a new base across the border in Tengen, Germany, the group Aufstände der Allmende (Uprising of the Commons) announced on Saturday afternoon.
The growing movement against data centres and Big Tech cannot be stopped by attempts at intimidation, the activists added. Just as tech oligarchs organise themselves internationally, the resistance must also be internationally networked, they said.
Protest against tech corporations
On Friday, the camp in Benken was cleared by the Zurich cantonal police. The activists had intended their action there – originally planned to last a week – to draw attention to the construction of a large data centre in neighbouring Beringen.
More
More
Swiss AI
How AI data centres risk straining Switzerland’s water resources
This content was published on
May 16, 2026
Switzerland’s rapidly expanding data centre sector is consuming ever‑greater amounts of water, driven by AI and the push for digital sovereignty.
Read more: How AI data centres risk straining Switzerland’s water resources
The group warned that the Schaffhausen region was gradually becoming a hotspot for data centres, and directed their protest explicitly against international tech corporations and their owners.
At the heart of their criticism is the massive consumption of resources by artificial intelligence (AI) and the infrastructure required to support it. The activists described data centres as “fuel for the climate crisis”.
Translated from German/sub-editing gw
Articles in this story