Amazon vows $1 billion for data center towns, decries 'myths'

SAN FRANCISCO

This photo shows an Amazon Web Services data center adjacent to single-family homes in Stone Ridge, Virginia. AFP Photo

Amazon has pledged more than $1 billion over five years for U.S. communities that host its data centers, the latest tech giant seeking to win over residents increasingly hostile to the AI-fueled construction boom.

The "Built Together" program, unveiled by Amazon Web Services chief Matt Garman in a 3,000-word blog post on Oct. 2, will fund free community college degrees and trades training as well as energy-efficiency upgrades for schools and homes.

The company also announced a "Data Center Commitment," promising that its facilities will not drive up local electricity bills and that it will publish annual figures on energy and water use.

Garman said AWS would stop using nondisclosure agreements with government agencies on its projects, a practice that has become a major flashpoint for the movement opposing data centers.
Microsoft made a similar move in March, the first major tech firm to do so.

He also took aim at what he called myths about data centers, disputing as false arguments that they drive up power costs, deplete water supply and cause pollution from diesel fumes.

Citing "widespread reports," Garman said some countries were deliberately seeding misinformation in the United States to slow construction — an argument also made by the Trump administration.

Disinformation researchers and fact-checkers say such claims overstate the role of foreign influence campaigns in a grassroots movement that spans the political spectrum and nearly every U.S. state.