In Brief
- Billion-Dollar Pledge: Amazon has committed over $1 billion over five years to support US communities that host its data centres.
- Community Investment: Unveiled by AWS chief Matt Garman, the ‘Built Together’ programme will fund free community college degrees, trades training, and energy-efficiency upgrades for local schools and homes.
- Transparency Promised: AWS announced a ‘Data Centre Commitment,’ pledging to publish annual energy and water usage figures and to stop using non-disclosure agreements with government agencies.
- National Security Concerns: Garman likened the data centre buildout to a national security imperative, warning that local moratoriums could cause the United States to lose the AI race.
- Industry-Wide Push: Amazon’s move follows similar initiatives by rivals like Microsoft and OpenAI to appease communities increasingly resistant to the AI-fuelled construction boom.
SAN FRANCISCO, United States (AFP) – Amazon on Friday pledged more than $1 billion over five years for US communities that host its data centres, the latest tech giant seeking to win over residents increasingly hostile to the AI-fuelled construction boom.
The “Built Together” programme, 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 company also announced a “Data Centre Commitment,” promising that its facilities will not drive up local electricity bills and that it will publish annual figures on energy and water use.
Garman said AWS would stop using non-disclosure agreements with government agencies on its projects, a practice that has become a major flashpoint for the movement opposing data centres.
Microsoft made a similar move in March, becoming the first major tech firm to do so.
Garman cast the buildout as a national security imperative on par with the 1950s interstate highway system.
He warned that with more than 100 local moratoriums under consideration nationwide, the United States “could be writing its own losing ticket,” in the AI race, and that “the consequences would last generations.”
He also took aim at what he called myths about data centres, disputing as false arguments that they drive up power costs, deplete water supplies, and cause pollution from diesel fumes.
Citing “widespread reports,” Garman said some countries were deliberately seeding misinformation in the United States to slow construction—an argument also made by the Trump administration.
Disinformation researchers and fact-checkers say such claims overstate the role of foreign influence campaigns in a grassroots movement that spans the political spectrum and nearly every US state.
President Donald Trump, a vocal champion of the buildout, has warned that communities rejecting the facilities would “end up being backwards and poor.”
Amazon’s rivals have made similar overtures.
In January, Microsoft pledged to fully cover its data centres’ power costs and stop requesting local tax breaks, and OpenAI promised that its Stargate data centres would not raise local electricity prices.
In March, Amazon, Google, Meta, Microsoft, OpenAI, Oracle, and xAI signed a White House pledge to provide their own power for new data centres and pay for any grid upgrades they require.
