Amazon launches new data center commitments - Semafor

Amazon today announced new commitments to generate buy-in for US data centers and rebutted criticism about the facilities.

The tech giant vowed to publish its energy and water use annually, and spend more than $1 billion over five years on free community college, trades training, and home energy-efficiency upgrades in data center counties.

Desperate for compute, tech companies have been pouring resources into responding to community and political pushback to data centers, countering what they see as misinformation.

In a roughly 3,000-word post, AWS CEO Matt Garman directly responded to what he described as “myths floating around,” including that the facilities consume too much water, drive up energy costs, and emit pollution.

Some cities and towns across the US are ultimately earning concessions as hyperscalers come under pressure: Teachers in Louisiana got bonuses thanks to Meta, for example, and NorthPoint Development proposed giving $10,000 to every household in a Pennsylvania township.