Amazon drops NDAs with governments on data centers — SkimNews
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- AWS CEO Matt Garman said Amazon no longer uses NDAs with government agencies on data center projects, writing, "We no longer use nondisclosure agreements with the government agencies we work with on our projects"
- More than 100 data center moratoriums are being considered across the US, including New York's recently announced one-year pause on permits for large data centers, according to Garman
- Amazon claims direct data center water consumption accounts for only 0.5% of US industrial water usage, calling it "orders of magnitude less" than golf courses and almond farming
- An independent watchdog found data centers were the main culprit behind a 76% year-over-year electricity price increase on America's largest electrical grid, contradicting Garman's claim that costs vary by state
- A planned Amazon data center in Texas is permitted to release 33 million tons of CO2 per year, more than any other US power plant, though Garman says backup generators are idle 99.9% of the time
- Amazon says it has contributed more than $1 billion over the past three years to communities with a meaningful data center presence
- Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei characterized the AI backlash as "fundamentally a crisis of trust," arguing people assume governments and tech companies are "cooking up some new way to screw them over"
Why it matters: Amazon is dropping NDAs and touting $1 billion in community giving to blunt a transparency backlash, but an independent watchdog tied data centers to a 76% electricity price spike on the nation's largest grid — meaning Garman's concessions may not slow the 100-plus moratoriums now being weighed by local governments.
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