Amazon Tears Up the NDAs on Data Center Deals

Amazon is done making local officials sign secrecy agreements before they'll talk about a data center in their backyard.

A secrecy pact goes public

AWS CEO Matt Garman announced in a blog post on October 2 that Amazon Web Services will no longer use nondisclosure agreements when negotiating data center projects with government agencies, according to reporting from the South Bend Tribune. The change applies only to future deals — Amazon says it has no plans to revisit the NDAs already signed, arguing most of them lose their bite once a project becomes public anyway.

The announcement came wrapped in a broader package Garman called the Amazon Data Center Commitment. Alongside the NDA ban, AWS is launching Built Together, a program promising more than $1 billion over five years to communities that host its facilities, funding education, workforce training, and energy affordability programs, per reporting from Beinsure.

Why secrecy became the problem

The shift follows a similar move from Microsoft earlier this year, according to TechCrunch — and it is a direct response to a backlash that has become a measurable business risk. Garman himself cited the number: more than 100 moratoriums on data center construction are currently under consideration by local governments across the country, and New York has already imposed a one-year moratorium on permits for large facilities.

The complaint behind the backlash is not primarily about water or noise, according to environmental activist Erin Brockovich, who has been a vocal figure in data center fights across several states. In her telling, the top grievance communities raise is secrecy itself — projects announced only after permits were secured, developers who would not return calls, and local officials bound by NDAs before their own neighbors knew anything was under consideration.

AWS says its new commitments also include ensuring the rates Amazon pays cover the energy and infrastructure its projects require so costs are not shifted to other customers, holding community open houses, prioritizing local hiring, and publicly reporting energy use, water use, and carbon-free energy figures annually, the South Bend Tribune reported.

The bigger bet

The context here is scale. Hyperscalers and neocloud companies have raised roughly $346 billion in debt and equity capital so far in 2026 to fund AI infrastructure, more than double 2025's $172 billion, according to reporting from Value Add Pulse. Amazon, the largest cloud infrastructure provider by revenue, is spending well over $100 billion on infrastructure in 2026 by most estimates — so the $1 billion community fund is modest next to the capex, but it is the first dedicated community fund of its kind among the hyperscalers.

The open question is whether dropping NDAs actually changes how deals get done — or just how they look. Local officials previously bound by confidentiality said they could not properly inform constituents about projects that could raise power consumption, traffic, and noise. Now Amazon is betting that letting the light in will calm the moratorium wave threatening its buildout.

Written by the BidAsk Newsroom. Based on reporting from the sources below.