Amazon says it has stopped using nondisclosure agreements with government agencies involved in its data-center projects, as public resistance over electricity, water use and secrecy becomes an increasingly significant obstacle to the infrastructure supporting artificial intelligence.
Amazon Web Services CEO Matt Garman announced the policy as part of a wider attempt to address criticism surrounding the rapid U.S. data-center buildout.
TechCrunch reported that Amazon no longer use[s] nondisclosure agreements with the government agencies it works with on data-center projects. The change comes as communities and lawmakers question how major projects are negotiated before residents learn their scale or potential environmental impact.
NDAs became a symbol of data-center secrecy
The controversy goes beyond confidentiality clauses themselves.
WIRED reported that NDAs have prevented some local officials from publicly discussing energy and water use, project details and even the identity of companies behind proposed facilities.
In South Bend, Indiana, where Amazon has invested more than $13 billion in a data-center campus, WIRED reported that some elected officials said local government employees could not answer questions about the development because of confidentiality agreements. The publication also cited a Wharton County, Texas project where an official signed an NDA with contractor VisionFirst Advisors, rather than directly with Amazon.
Amazon is putting more than $1 billion into host communities
Transparency is only one part of Amazon’s response.
The company says it will invest more than $1 billion over five years in communities hosting its data centers, including support for community-college programs, workforce training, and energy-efficiency improvements in schools, homes and public buildings.
The pressure to win local support is growing. Garman said there are more than 100 data-center moratoriums under consideration across the United States and warned that widespread restrictions could weaken the country’s position in the AI race.
Amazon is also challenging claims about water and electricity
Garman’s announcement pushes back against criticism that data centers necessarily create excessive water use, higher electricity prices and major local pollution.
TechCrunch reported that Garman cited Amazon figures claiming direct data-center water consumption represents about 0.5% of U.S. industrial water use. But the publication noted that such calculations may not capture water consumed indirectly through electricity generation or semiconductor manufacturing.
Electricity remains similarly contested. Amazon argues that higher rates in some data-center-heavy regions largely reflect older grids that were not expanded before demand arrived. TechCrunch, however, pointed to an independent watchdog that recently attributed a 76% year-over-year price increase on America’s largest electricity grid primarily to data centers.
Trust is becoming part of AI infrastructure
For Amazon and other hyperscalers, the larger issue is becoming difficult to separate from engineering.
AI companies need chips, power, transmission capacity and enormous physical facilities. But those resources increasingly depend on approval from communities that want clearer information about who benefits and who absorbs the costs.
Ending government NDAs therefore matters beyond public relations.
The AI infrastructure race increasingly depends on a resource that cannot simply be ordered from a supplier: local trust.
If communities do not believe the companies building data centers, billions of dollars in GPUs and cloud infrastructure may matter less than the permits required to switch them on.
