AWS drops NDAs with governments and pledges $1B to data center communities
AWS chief Matt Garman says Amazon will stop using NDAs with government agencies and spend over $1 billion in communities that host its data centers.
Amazon is changing how it deals with the communities around its data centers as opposition to new builds grows in the United States. In an essay defending the industry, Amazon Web Services chief executive Matt Garman said the company has stopped using nondisclosure agreements with government agencies when it seeks approval for new facilities, TechCrunch reports.
Amazon also committed more than $1 billion over five years to communities that host its data centers, according to Mobile World Live. The programme covers education, workforce training, local hiring, energy upgrades and water and energy preservation projects, with local communities helping decide how the money is used. Amazon expects to connect more than 300,000 students to free degree programmes and to fund efficiency upgrades for more than 300 schools and community buildings and over 30,000 homes. It said it will publish annual figures on energy consumption, water use and efficiency.
Moratoriums in view
The essay responds to restrictions on new construction. New York has introduced a one-year moratorium on large data centers, which Mobile World Live says applies to hyperscale facilities needing 50 megawatts or more. Garman said more than 100 moratoriums are under consideration across the country and warned that enacting them could leave the US behind in the global AI race.
He disputed claims about water use, electricity prices and pollution, saying direct data center water consumption is about 0.5% of US industrial water use and that backup generators sit idle 99.9% of the time.
TechCrunch notes that such figures leave out the water used in electricity generation and chip manufacturing, and that there are no federal or state rules on how technology companies report this data.