AWS Halts Local Government NDAs as Data Center Resistance Grows

Amazon Web Services has ended its use of nondisclosure agreements with government agencies when negotiating approvals for new data centers, chief executive Matt Garman announced in a blog post reported by TechCrunch AI (https://techcrunch.com/2026/10/03/amazon-responds-to-data-center-backlash-says-it-no-longer-uses-ndas/). The policy shift comes as tech companies encounter intensifying community and regulatory resistance to the physical infrastructure powering cloud computing and artificial intelligence.

Nondisclosure agreements between developers and municipal officials have drawn sharp criticism from local residents and environmental advocates, including activist Erin Brockovich, who noted that projects are frequently concealed until permits are already secured. Resistance has led New York to impose a one-year moratorium on permits for large data centers, while Garman noted that more than 100 separate data center moratoriums are under consideration across the United States.

In his defense of data center development, Garman warned against restrictive measures, arguing that broad moratoriums could weaken long-term American competitiveness. He also attempted to push back against four common criticisms: water usage, grid strain, air pollution, and local economic contributions.

Addressing resource consumption, Garman cited internal Amazon data showing that direct data center water consumption represents 0.5% of total industrial water usage in the U.S., which he compared favorably to golf courses and almond farming. On power costs, Garman contended that rate increases stem primarily from underinvested electrical grids rather than computing demand, though an independent watchdog recently attributed a 76% year-over-year price spike on the country's largest electrical grid primarily to data center load.

Garman also addressed scrutiny over air quality permits, including a planned Amazon facility in Texas permitted to emit up to 33 million tons of carbon dioxide annually. He argued that permit ceilings reflect extreme operational scenarios rather than real-world conditions, noting that backup generators remain idle roughly 99.9% of the year and operate for about 10 hours annually during maintenance tests. To support community relations, Garman stated that Amazon has contributed over $1 billion over the past three years to U.S. localities hosting significant data center facilities.