Amazon warns blocking data centers risks US economy and national security

Garman directly addressed public concerns about data centers’ effects on jobs, power demand and the environment. “With any change, there will be important questions raised, but there will also be misinformation and outright lies, and in the age of social media and 24/7 news, myths take hold faster than ever before,” he wrote. He added that the buildout is “so important geopolitically that there are widespread reports of various countries intentionally seeding misinformation in the US about data centers to trick us into slowing down.”

The blog post came as public support for AI data centers has fallen in polls and as projects face growing backlash from U.S. communities, according to The Verge. Concerns about AI safety and the technology’s broader social impact have also increased. Garman wrote that more than 100 data center moratoriums are being considered across the country. “If these measures are enacted, the US could be writing its own losing ticket to this race, and the consequences would last generations,” he said.

Amazon used the memorandum to codify a set of practices under a “Data Center Commitment.” The company said the commitment covers creating jobs, preventing increases to local energy rates and investing more than $1 billion to support communities that neighbor its data centers. Amazon also said it no longer uses nondisclosure agreements with government agencies. The change followed Democratic lawmaker Jamie Raskin’s scrutiny of tech companies’ secret deals with local officials.

In an interview with The Wall Street Journal about the nondisclosure agreements, Amazon chief global affairs and legal officer David Zapolsky said “the industry comes from a history of secrecy and so some of that’s just reflex.” He added that community leaders need to share information with their constituents and that requiring secrecy “just didn’t make sense” anymore.