AWS abandons government NDAs to ease data center backlash

Amazon Web Services (AWS) has stopped requiring government agencies to sign nondisclosure agreements (NDAs) when seeking approvals for new data centers. AWS CEO Matt Garman announced the policy shift in a blog post addressing the mounting public resistance to infrastructure expansion. This backlash has already led to a one-year permit moratorium on large data centers in New York, with local governments currently considering more than 100 similar moratoriums across the United States. Garman warned that these restrictions could severely damage the country's long-term technological competitiveness.

To counter community concerns, Garman disputed several common criticisms regarding resource consumption and pollution. He noted that direct water consumption by data centers accounts for just 0.5% of U.S. industrial water usage, far below sectors like almond farming. While Nvidia claims its latest cooling system eliminates almost all internal water use, researchers emphasize that these figures overlook the water required for chip manufacturing and power generation. Garman also defended energy impacts, blaming rising electricity rates on outdated grids, though an independent watchdog recently linked data centers to a 76% year-over-year price spike on the nation's largest electrical grid.

Regarding emissions, Garman argued that critics overstate the impact of backup generators, which remain idle 99.9% of the time and run for only about 10 hours annually. This stands in contrast to regulatory filings, such as those for a planned AWS facility in Texas permitted to emit up to 33 million tons of carbon dioxide per year. To demonstrate local commitment alongside the NDA ban, Garman highlighted that Amazon has invested more than $1 billion over the last three years into communities hosting its data centers.

For AI practitioners and infrastructure developers, this policy shift signals a transition toward radical transparency in project planning. As Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei noted, the industry faces a "fundamentally a crisis of trust" that cannot be solved by corporate assurances alone. Developers must prepare for open public scrutiny earlier in the development cycle, as the era of quiet, NDA-shielded land acquisitions draws to a close.