By David Shepardson
WASHINGTON, Oct 2 (Reuters) – Amazon’s cloud computing division said on Friday it would invest more than $1 billion over the next five years in US communities where it has data centers and vowed to tackle their impacts on electricity and water usage.
Data centers, which provide the computing power to train and run AI models, have drawn opposition in communities nationwide over concerns about electricity demand, utility costs and other local impacts. The backlash poses a political challenge for Republicans heading into the US midterm elections on November 3.
Amazon said it had invested $276 billion in data centers between 2011 and 2025 and had large projects or expansions in the works in many states including Indiana, Louisiana, North Carolina, Virginia and Mississippi.
Amazon Web Services said the community investment plans announced on Friday would include spending on education, job training, energy affordability, water and energy preservation and other local priorities in parts of the US where it has data centers.
The company in a lengthy statement sought to rebut criticism of data centers tied to environmental, energy and economic impacts and noted there were more than 100 data center moratoriums being considered across the country.
“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,” AWS CEO Matt Garman said.
AWS also committed to being water positive across its data centers by 2030 by returning more water to communities than it uses and said it was 75% of the way toward its goal.
(Reporting by David Shepardson; Editing by Jamie Freed)
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