Amazon Web Services will stop using nondisclosure agreements with local governments on data center projects and will spend $1 billion over five years in the communities that host its facilities, AWS CEO Matt Garman said Friday, Hoodline reported. The program, called Built Together, is Amazon's most direct answer yet to the local opposition that has slowed data center construction across the U.S.

What Happened

Garman said Amazon would share information about planned projects as early as possible, listen to residents' concerns and let them stay involved as projects move forward, according to Hoodline. The company also plans open houses near proposed sites.

Built Together is organized around three areas: education and workforce pathways, energy affordability and water projects, and flexible funding for local priorities. Hoodline reported that the commitments include community college tuition for about 300,000 students, efficiency upgrades for more than 30,000 homes and 300 schools and public buildings, and growth in trade certification centers from three to 25 by 2028.

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In a long post on Amazon's news site, Garman also took on what he described as myths about data centers. He said direct data center water use amounts to about 0.5% of U.S. industrial water consumption. He argued that electricity rates have risen in some states with heavy data center activity but fallen or grown more slowly in others, and he attributed increases to aging grid infrastructure. He said backup generators run roughly 10 hours a year, mostly for required testing, and sit idle 99.9% of the time. And he said Amazon had already contributed more than $1 billion over the past three years to U.S. communities where it has a large data center presence.

Why It Matters

Secrecy has been a central complaint of data center opponents. Critics, including environmental activist Erin Brockovich, have said projects are often disclosed only after land deals and permits are largely settled, while local officials who signed nondisclosure agreements cannot discuss them. Dropping those agreements with public agencies removes one of the most frequently cited points of friction.

The pledge leaves open questions. Hoodline noted it is unclear whether contractors and real estate developers working on Amazon projects will still be bound by confidentiality terms, which would limit how much earlier residents actually learn about a site.

The scale of the money is also likely to draw scrutiny. Hoodline, citing an analysis by FourWeekMBA, said Amazon claimed $561 million in sales and use tax exemptions for Indiana data centers alone in 2025, more than 2.8 times the roughly $200 million a year Built Together promises nationwide.

Context

Local resistance has become a practical constraint on the AI buildout. More than 100 local data center moratoriums are under consideration nationwide by one widely cited count, and New York has imposed a one-year moratorium on permits for large data centers. Hoodline's report centered on Richmond County, North Carolina, where AWS has a $10 billion data center campus.

Garman's arguments on power and pollution are contested. A watchdog has blamed data centers for most of a 76% year-over-year price increase on the largest U.S. power grid, and a planned Amazon data center in Texas holds a permit covering 33 million tons of carbon dioxide a year, a figure unrelated to how often backup generators run.

What to Watch

Key tests are whether other hyperscalers match the no-NDA commitment, whether Amazon extends it to private partners and how quickly Built Together money reaches specific towns. Local votes on pending projects, including those facing moratorium proposals, will show whether the program changes minds or mainly changes the terms of the debate.