Amazon's policy shift, first reported by TechCrunch, means the company will stop requiring local governments to sign NDAs during data center negotiations. Microsoft had already taken the same step. The change was buried in a longer Amazon blog post making the case that data centers are good for communities.
On TechCrunch's Equity podcast, journalist Sean O'Kane said the secrecy around data center projects is at the root of many of the industry's problems. He noted that projects are often negotiated behind closed doors, sometimes with the public knowing a data center is planned but not who will use or occupy it.
"We've seen, through a lot of the controversy and backlash to AI and data centers, that the industry just does a really poor job explaining itself," O'Kane said.
He drew a parallel to Uber's rapid expansion in the mid-2010s, when the ride-hailing company negotiated tax subsidies with local governments in secret, including a case near Orlando, Florida, that involved subsidizing rides to public transit.
The article also quotes co-host Rebecca Bellan, who was skeptical that recent data center moratoriums will have a lasting effect. Those moratoriums typically last only a year or two, she said, while data centers take several years to come online. Host Anthony Ha countered that data center backers clearly seem worried about the backlash.
The debate points to wider concerns about data centers, including their effects on property values, electricity bills and water use, though the industry argues those worries are often inflated.