Abstract:
Amazon is trying its best to show its image as a "friendly company" and hopes to gain more social support for the construction of artificial intelligence data centers. The cloud computing giant issued a memo on Friday calling the fight for artificial intelligence dominance a "race that the United States cannot afford to lose," and announced a number of initiatives to help communities where its data centers are located.
Amazon data center in New Carlisle, Indiana.
This document of more than 3,100 words was released by Amazon Cloud Technology (AWS) CEO Matt Garman. The article stated that in the next five years, Amazon will invest more than US$1 billion in relevant communities in addition to the commitments it has already made. The funds will be used for education, vocational training, water protection, and other local key livelihood projects.
In response to common concerns from the outside world - the impact of data centers on the environment, energy and electricity prices, and doubts about actual job creation capabilities, Garman responded and warned that the society is filled with a lot of false information.
This is a critical period, and data center projects are losing public support. Major technology companies are investing hundreds of billions of dollars to expand computing power, but politicians who once strongly supported the construction of AI infrastructure are now beginning to criticize such projects. Amazon said it plans to spend $220 billion in capital expenditures in 2026, most of which will be invested in data centers.
Rep. Jamie Raskin, the top Democrat on the U.S. House Judiciary Committee, sent a letter to Amazon, Google, Meta and Oracle on Tuesday, requesting the four companies to provide information on confidentiality agreements signed with government officials related to the construction of data centers.
Garman said on Friday that Amazon no longer uses such confidentiality agreements.
Various technology companies are using financial subsidies, holding local communication symposiums, and publicly warning about the negative impacts of slowed expansion to resolve the increasingly strong opposition to projects.
Amazon wrote in the memo that the company will work with local officials to ensure that economic dividends benefit local residents; it will also hold open days at its operations to "encourage open dialogue." The document also stated that Amazon has a data center with leading energy efficiency and will release an annual report in the future to detail public resource consumption and energy efficiency.
Some competitors announced earlier measures to deal with the backlash in public opinion. Microsoft announced in March that it would terminate confidentiality agreements with local governments where proposed projects are located; Meta established a US$1 billion fund in August to repay the communities where data centers are located.
Talking about confidentiality agreements, David Zapolsky, Amazon's general head of global affairs and legal affairs, said in an interview: "This industry used to be secretive, and some of its practices were just path dependence. It no longer makes sense to continue to require signing confidentiality agreements. Local leaders need to be able to disclose relevant information to voters."
In Friday’s memo, Garman compared the construction of AI data centers to the construction of interstate highways in the United States in the middle of the last century, saying that both are historic nodes that can reshape the national economy and determine the country’s future. He also warned against the ban on data center construction proposed in some areas.
"If such a ban is implemented, it will be equivalent to the United States actively choosing to lose in this competition, and its negative effects will last for generations. As a country, we cannot afford such an outcome." Garman wrote.
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