Amazon drops data center NDAs with officials and pledges $1 billion to host towns
AWS's chief pairs the end of secrecy deals with $1 billion for host towns, and says the backlash is built on myths.
Amazon says it has stopped using nondisclosure agreements with the government agencies it works with on data center projects. The line is one entry in a long post on Amazon's news site by Matt Garman, CEO of Amazon Web Services, which he shared on X early on October 2, 2026.
The same post puts more than $1 billion over five years into the towns that host Amazon's data centers, under a program called Built Together. Most of it, though, is Garman's case that the backlash against data centers rests on myths, and that letting it win would cost the US the AI race.
- Program
- Built Together
- Who
- Matt Garman, CEO of Amazon Web Services
- New money
- more than $1 billion over the next five years
- NDAs
- no longer used with government agencies
- Moratoriums being considered
- over 100
What Amazon is promising
Garman calls the list the Amazon Data Center Commitment. It says the prices Amazon pays for power should cover the grid upgrades its sites need, so local bills don't rise. New sites get backup generators that meet the EPA's Tier 4 standard.
The NDA promise is the one aimed most directly at the backlash, and it takes one sentence.
We no longer use nondisclosure agreements with the government agencies we work with on our projects.
Amazon will also publish its energy use, water use and share of carbon-free energy every year. The post doesn't say when the first figures come out.
Where the $1 billion goes
Built Together has three parts. Residents of data center communities get free community college for trades such as electricians and HVAC, and Amazon estimates it will connect over 300,000 students to free degrees in five years. It runs three Modular Training Centers today (six more are being built) and plans 16 more.
The second part is grants for energy upgrades, aimed at more than 300 schools and community buildings and over 30,000 homes. The third is flexible money that local groups and residents direct themselves, toward roads, parks, fire equipment or housing.
The myths, as Garman tells it
Garman goes through four claims and rejects all of them. A typical data center uses about 170,000 gallons of water a day, he writes, and Amazon's average is under 13,000. Blaming data centers for all rising power rates is "misleading and convenient scapegoating" in his words, because the grid is old.
With any change, there will be important questions raised, but there will also be misinformation and outright lies
He goes further than that. He says there are widespread reports of other countries seeding misinformation about data centers in the US to slow it down, and he doesn't name a country or a report.
What people said back
Ben Inskeep wanted the promise to go further.
It's not enough to stop using NDAs with *local officials*. Big Tech also needs to end the use of NDAs for its contracts with utilities. In Indiana, redactions to Amazon contracts are hiding BILLIONS in rate subsidies they are receiving through sweetheart deals with utilities.
The Athena Coalition took the change as a win for the campaigns against data centers, and doubted Amazon's reasons.
This is an encouraging sign that the data center backlash is working. But it's not like Amazon grew a conscience overnight. It's more likely that 1) they know local NDA bans are coming anyway and 2) they want to be seen as the "good guys" to who can regulate themselves
Patrick Hedger was warmer about it.
Amazon/AWS addressing data center concerns head on with huge new commitments (and some myth busting).
Amazon says the free community college program will launch in the next few months. The energy grants roll out across its data center communities on the same rough timetable.
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