Credit: Yender Gonzalez on Unsplash Amazon will spend more than $1bn over the next five years in US communities that host its data centres. Matt Garman, chief executive of Amazon Web Services, announced the programme, called Built Together, in a post on Friday, along with new commitments on power, water and transparency. The money will go to three areas: education and job training, energy and water, and projects chosen by each community. It comes on top of more than $1bn that Amazon says it has given to these communities over the past three years.
Under the plan, Amazon will cover out-of-pocket community college costs for an estimated 300,000 students. It will also build 16 more training centres on or near its sites, offering free certificates in trades such as electrical work and fibre optics. It runs three today, and six more are in development. Grants will also pay for energy upgrades in more than 300 schools and community buildings and over 30,000 homes, which Amazon said should save households about $700 a year.
Local nonprofits and community foundations will hand out the rest for projects such as roads, parks and fire equipment. Amazon did not give a full breakdown of the $1bn, GeekWire reported. However, the company told GeekWire it expects to put more than $100mn into community college endowments and about another $100mn into its training centres. Garman linked the spending to growing local opposition.
More than 100 data centre moratoriums are now under consideration across the US, he wrote. “If these measures are enacted, the U.S. could be writing its own losing ticket to this race, and the consequences would last generations,” Garman wrote. That opposition has spread fast this year, with protests in 42 states over power bills, water use and secrecy. In his post, Garman called it false that data centres take most local water and blamed rising power bills mainly on an ageing grid. He also pointed to foreign accounts spreading misinformation, although one such campaign reached very few people.
Alongside the funding, Amazon said it will no longer use non-disclosure agreements with government agencies on its projects, a step Pennsylvania now requires. The change applies only to new deals, GeekWire reported. Amazon will also fit cleaner backup generators at new sites and publish its energy and water use every year. Amazon repeated its goal of returning more water to communities than its data centres use by 2030, and said it was 75% of the way there in 2025.
Meanwhile, Microsoft promised in January not to seek local tax breaks for its data centres. Amazon told GeekWire it may still pursue them in some cases. Also tagged with
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