AWS will stop signing nondisclosure agreements with government agencies on its data center projects, CEO Matt Garman announced in a blog post published today — days after US Representative Jamie Raskin opened an investigation into Amazon, Google, Meta and Oracle over their use of such agreements.

The shift lands roughly six months after Microsoft made the same change, and follows Raskin's finding that Amazon's former secrecy agreements prevented local officials from disclosing broadly defined "proprietary" or "confidential" information. That ambiguity left officials uncertain about what they could share publicly.

What is AWS committing to?

Garman's post bundles the NDA withdrawal into a broader set of commitments, several of which AWS has previously stated or already practices:

• Covering utility infrastructure upgrade costs so residents' electricity bills do not rise
• Working with local officials to direct tax contributions to community initiatives
• Contributing to local non-profits and community organizations
• Creating jobs in project areas
• Designing and building data centers to be energy- and water-efficient

The company also launched a community program, "Built Together," which will invest an additional $1 billion in community initiatives across the US.

What does the blog post argue?

The post's overall thrust counters negative perceptions of data center construction. Garman challenges what he calls "myths" — large water usage, projects driving up energy rates, and the environmental impact of backup generators — and urges communities to accept the ongoing buildout across the US and elsewhere.

Garman writes: "With any change, there will be important questions raised, but there will also be misinformation and outright lies, and in the age of social media and 24/7 news, myths take hold faster than ever before. In fact, this buildout is so important geopolitically that there are widespread reports of various countries intentionally seeding misinformation in the US about data centers to trick us into slowing down."

He puts a hard number on the stakes. "Right now, there are over 100 data center moratoriums being considered across the country," Garman writes. "If these measures are enacted, the US could be writing its own losing ticket to this race, and the consequences would last generations. As a country, we can't afford to find ourselves in that position."

What did the announcement leave out?

Garman's post did not address two practices Raskin's investigation surfaced: Amazon's use of shell companies to conceal its involvement in proposed data centers, and its use of opaque project codenames. AWS has not said whether those practices will continue. DCD has contacted the company for comment.

The timing is difficult to ignore. Raskin, Ranking Member of the House Judiciary Committee, launched the investigation into the four hyperscalers just days before the blog post appeared. Microsoft's decision to stop asking local governments to sign NDAs came just over half a year ago, meaning AWS now aligns with its largest cloud rival on disclosure policy — under congressional scrutiny rather than ahead of it.