Amazon’s cloud computing division announced a new effort Friday to temper opposition to data centers in some U.S. communities, while asserting that the United States “cannot afford to lose” the race for global artificial intelligence dominance.
The tech giant has committed to investing an additional $1 billion over five years in communities where it builds data centers, the facilities that power AI, on top of existing commitments. Amazon said the money would go toward education, job training, energy affordability, and water and energy conservation, and would also fund other local priorities.
“There is an urgent need to build a data center because we are not the only country seeing the benefits of AI for the economy and national security, and countries leading in AI will shape it and get the most out of it in the short and long term,” Matt Garman, CEO of Amazon Web Services, said in a blog post. “The choices we make today will determine this outcome, and a lack of focus or determination from our nation could leave us falling behind, potentially irreparably.”
A recent CBS News survey found that more Americans oppose than favor data centers in their area, largely because they perceive such facilities as harming the environment and draining local resources.
A report from Schneider Electric, a company specializing in digital automation and energy management, predicts that electricity demand in the United States will be i16% increase by 2029, mainly due to the proliferation of data centers. AI-powered searches use 10 times more electricity than normal Internet searches, according to a study by the nonprofit Electric Power Research Institute.
According to a group called Data Center Watch, which tracks opposition to data centers In the United States, 30 states have introduced or passed laws or taken other measures to address some of these concerns. Some communities have also placed precautionary moratoriums on data center construction before builders even plan the sites, the group notes.
The number of data centers in the United States nearly doubled between 2021 and 2024, according to a report from Environment America, a network of environmental groups. Grassroots Efforts to block data center development have thwarted at least 45 developments in 27 states, valued at $68 billion, according to the group.
Amazon’s Garman said such disruption is dangerous, saying data center construction is so geopolitically important that foreign countries could “intentionally sow disinformation in the United States about data centers to get us to slow down.”
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