AWS Drops Data Center NDAs as Local Opposition Grows
Amazon Web Services has stopped using nondisclosure agreements with government agencies when seeking approval to build new data centers.
The commitment came from AWS CEO Matt Garman in a blog post titled "Amazon's approach to data centers," published on October 2, 2026. Garman framed the post as a direct response to community suspicion of data centers and an argument that they benefit the areas where they are built TechCrunch.
Garman said more than 100 data center moratoriums, temporary freezes on new approvals, are currently being considered across the United States. New York has announced a one-year moratorium on permits for large data centers. A June Reuters/Ipsos poll found that a third of Americans approve of the pace of data center construction Reuters.
Secrecy has become a central friction point in permitting. Garman said AWS will no longer use NDAs with local governments for data centers, a practice critics said prevented residents and elected officials from discussing projects under review Wired. Environmental advocate Erin Brockovich said the number one complaint she has heard about data centers is transparency.
Power cost is a second friction point. An independent watchdog said data centers were the main culprit behind a 76% year-over-year price increase on America's largest electrical grid. Interconnection, the approval and wiring work required to plug a large new customer into the grid, is constraining builds elsewhere as well. Long delays in getting power-grid connections challenged Amazon's plans to expand data centers in Europe Reuters.
Garman organized his rebuttal around four myths about data centers: that they consume too much water, increase electricity costs, emit enormous pollution, and provide no community benefits. On water, he said direct data center water consumption accounts for 0.5% of all industrial water usage in the United States. On community impact, Amazon announced it will invest $1 billion over five years in U.S. data-center communities Reuters. Garman said local opposition to data centers is stoked by "misinformation and outright lies." Amazon warned that local opposition threatens U.S. AI leadership GeekWire. Garman has also pushed back against Elon Musk's proposal for space-based data centers.
For operators, the NDA concession is narrow but operationally significant. NDAs with municipalities and county boards sped early site control and limited competitive signaling, so rivals learned less about where AWS intended to build. They also created an information asymmetry, with the company holding project details the public could not see, that is now politically expensive. Removing them will force earlier public disclosure of power load, water use, tax terms, and construction timelines. That will complicate site selection. It may also shorten later fights.
In my view, this cycle feels familiar from earlier infrastructure builds. Large projects tend to start with quiet permits and shift to open negotiation once their demands on land, water and power become visible. I watched my own kids grow up through versions of that bargain, first with cell towers and later with logistics warehouses near schools and suburbs. The pattern held. Transparency did not end opposition, but it changed the questions from who knew what to how costs and benefits are metered. For data centers, that means metered water and power data, enforceable grid upgrade commitments, and local revenue structures will matter more than corporate pledges. If AWS and its peers can publish those terms in a form county engineers and utility planners can verify, expansion gets easier. If not, the moratorium count will keep rising, and AI capacity planning will have to treat permitting risk like silicon supply, as a first-order constraint.
