Amazon’s cloud computing division said Friday it would invest more than $1 billion over the next five years in US communities where it has data centers and vowed to tackle their impacts on electricity and water usage. This comes amid wide backlash over the impact of data centers on communities with its demand on electricity and water resources.
Amazon said it had invested $276 billion in data centers between 2011 and 2025 and had large projects or expansions in the works in many states including Indiana, Louisiana, North Carolina, Virginia and Mississippi.
Amazon Web Services said the community investment plans announced on Friday would include spending on education, job training, energy affordability, water and energy preservation and other local priorities in parts of the US where it has data centers.
“There is urgency to this data center buildout because we aren’t the only country that sees the benefits of AI for the economy and national security, and the countries that lead in AI will shape it and get the most from it,” AWS CEO Matt Garman said.
AWS also committed to being water positive across its data centers by 2030 by returning more water to communities than it uses and said it was 75% of the way toward its goal.
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While announcing the post, Garman said local opposition to data centers — which he asserted is stoked by “misinformation and outright lies” — threatens the country’s position in the global race for AI leadership.
“Right now there are over 100 data center moratoriums being considered across the country,” Garman wrote. “If these measures are enacted, the U.S. could be writing its own losing ticket to this race, and the consequences would last generations.”
According to GeekWire, Amazon is making an unprecedented bet on AI, projecting about $220 billion in capital expenses this year, largely on data centers and chips. That’s more than the cash its business generates on an annual basis. By comparison, the additional $1 billion in community funding over five years works out to about $200 million a year, or about one-tenth of 1% of this year’s projected capital spending.
Garman said it is “false” that data centers are sucking up all the water in communities, “misleading and convenient scapegoating” to blame them for driving up all electricity rates, “untrue” that their backup generators emit huge amounts of pollution, and “false” that communities get nothing in return. He pointed to “widespread reports of various countries intentionally seeding misinformation in the U.S. about data centers to trick us into slowing down.”
OpenAI and X have each reported China-linked accounts posting about data centers. However, a report by PolitiFact recently revealed that the role of foreign influence in the opposition to data centers has been exaggerated, with little sign the accounts reached a wide audience.