Amazon Web Services will invest more than $1 billion over the next five years in communities where it builds data centers, and has stopped requiring local governments to sign nondisclosure agreements about its projects, AWS CEO Matt Garman announced on Friday, Oct. 2.
The move marks one of the cloud industry’s most direct responses yet to growing local opposition to data center construction across the United States.
A new commitment amid community backlash
Garman wrote that the company understands why there is apprehension in some communities where data centers are being built, and said Amazon has decided to codify its practices into a series of tenets it calls the Amazon Data Center Commitment.
The announcement, published in a company blog post on Amazon’s corporate newsroom, frames the new program as a response to mounting public skepticism about the rapid buildout of AI infrastructure nationwide.
The commitments come as data centers have become increasingly unpopular, complicating the push to rapidly build more of the server warehouses across the country to support AI development.
A Pew Research Center survey of 10,548 U.S. adults conducted July 20-Aug. 9, 2026 found that six in 10 adults also said they would be uncomfortable with a new data center operating near them.
As a result of that backlash, on Tuesday, July 14, 2026 , New York Gov. Kathy Hochul signed an executive order placing a one-year pause on new AI data centers across New York , and according to Garman, there are over 100 data center moratoriums being considered across the country.
Ending nondisclosure agreements
Among the most notable changes is Amazon’s decision to stop using secrecy agreements with local officials. In the blog post, the company noted that it no longer uses nondisclosure agreements with the government agencies it works with on its projects.
The move comes just days after Jamie Raskin, ranking member of the House Judiciary Committee, launched an investigation into Amazon, Google, Meta Platforms, and Oracle over their use of nondisclosure agreements with local government officials that prevent officials from sharing details about proposed data center projects with constituents.
The investigation found that Amazon has used shell companies to conceal its involvement in proposed data centers , among other practices the inquiry examined across the four companies.
Amazon also pledged new transparency on resource use, committing to publish annual figures on energy and water use at its facilities. The company has said its data centers will not drive up local electricity bills for residents.
Built Together funds colleges and training
The financial centerpiece of the announcement is a program called Built Together. The program, unveiled by Amazon Web Services chief Matt Garman in a 3,000-word blog post, will fund free community college degrees and trades training as well as energy-efficiency upgrades for schools and homes.
The money can support education, job training, energy affordability, water preservation, and priorities selected with local organizations. Amazon has said it contributed more than $1 billion to communities with a significant data center presence over the previous three years, and the new pledge extends that investment.
Garman also pushed back on criticism of the company’s rate impact. The company announced a “Data Center Commitment,” promising that its facilities will not drive up local electricity bills and that it will publish annual figures on energy and water use.
He addressed the issue of rising electricity rates in states with a high number of data centers, arguing that these increases are primarily due to an aging grid that has not been upgraded or expanded to meet demand.
Scale of Amazon’s buildout
The commitment lands as Amazon’s data center footprint keeps expanding rapidly. Amazon is one of several hyperscalers racing to add capacity nationwide to meet surging demand for AI computing power.
Those plans put the company’s infrastructure investment on a scale that rivals the compute demands already reshaping other corners of the tech sector, including AI coding tools and cloud rivals racing to expand capacity.
Garman framed the stakes in geopolitical terms. He said the buildout is urgent because other countries also see AI’s benefits for their economies and national security, and that the countries that lead in AI will shape the technology and gain the most from it.
He warned that right now there are over 100 data center moratoriums being considered across the country, and if these measures are enacted, the US could be writing its own losing ticket to this race, and the consequences would last generations, adding that as a country, “we can’t afford to find ourselves in that position,” comparing the data center buildout to the national highway system in terms of its economic and security benefits.
The announcement did not address every point of contention raised by critics. The blog post from Garman did not address Amazon’s use of shell companies to conceal its involvement in proposed data centers, or the use of opaque project codenames.
The company’s expanding cloud footprint comes as competitors such as Microsoft pursue their own massive capacity increases, underscoring how central physical infrastructure has become to the AI race playing out among the world’s largest technology firms, a dynamic also shaping fast-growing AI cloud challengers.
