Amazon vows $1 billion for data center towns, warning U.S. “can’t afford to lose” AI race

Amazon’s cloud computing division on Friday announced a new effort to temper opposition to data centers in some U.S. communities, while saying the U.S. “can’t afford to lose” the race to dominate artificial intelligence globally. 

The tech giant pledged to invest an additional $1 billion over five years in the communities where it builds data centers, the facilities that power AI, on top of existing commitments. Amazon said the money will go toward education, job training, energy affordability, and water and energy preservation, and also fund other local priorities. 

“There is urgency to this data center buildout because we aren’t the only country that sees the benefits of AI for the economy and national security, and the countries that lead in AI will shape it and get the most from it in the short and long run,” Amazon Web Services CEO Matt Garman said in a blog post. “The choices we make today will determine that outcome, and a lapse in our nation’s focus or resolve could put us behind, and potentially irreparably so.”

A recent CBS News poll found that more Americans oppose than favor data centers in their areas, largely because they perceive the facilities as harming the environment and draining local resources. 

A report from Schneider Electric, a company specializing in digital automation and energy management, projects that U.S. electricity demand will increase by 16% by 2029, mainly due to the proliferation of data centers. AI searches use 10 times more electricity than normal internet searches, according to a study from the Electric Power Research Institute, a nonprofit organization. 

According to a group called Data Center Watch, which tracks opposition to data centers across the U.S., 30  states have introduced or adopted legislation or taken other actions to address some of these concerns. Some communities also imposed preemptive moratoriums on data center construction even before builders planned sites, the group notes. 

The number of data centers in the U.S. 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 across 27 states, valued at $68 billion, according to the group.

Amazon’s Garman said such disruption is dangerous, claiming that the data center buildout is so geopolitically important that foreign nations could be “intentionally seeding misinformation in the U.S. about data centers to trick us into slowing down.”