Amazon responds to data center backlash, says it no longer uses NDAs
- ID
- 31516
- Status
- summarized
- Published
- 04 Oct 2026, 2:43 AM
- Fetched
- 04 Oct 2026, 3:24 AM
- Provider
- TechCrunch
- Category
- technology
- Original URL
- https://techcrunch.com/2026/10/03/amazon-responds-to-data-center-backlash-says-it-no-longer-uses-ndas/
- Source URL
- https://techcrunch.com/feed/
Summary
- Score
- 6.0
- Created
- 04 Oct 2026, 3:25 AM
- Tags
- Audience
- developersstartup_foundersai_ml_learners
What happened
AWS CEO Matt Garman said Amazon has stopped using NDAs in its dealings with government agencies, as part of a blog post pushing back on data center opposition while Amazon seeks approval to build new data centers. The post cites New York's one-year moratorium on permits for large data centers and claims more than 100 data center moratoriums are being considered across the US. Garman also argues data centers are not major water users, saying direct data center water consumption is 0.5% of all US industrial water usage, less than golf courses and almond farming.
Why it matters
The concrete change is Amazon's NDA policy for government agencies, so builders should not expect any immediate AWS product, region, or pricing change from this post. The actionable signal is the 100+ proposed US data center moratoriums: if they advance, they could affect where and how fast cloud/AI capacity expands, which matters to teams making multi-year compute or data-residency plans. The article provides no Malaysia-specific detail, so treat it as a global cloud-infrastructure policy signal rather than a local announcement.
Discussion angle
Debate whether Amazon dropping NDAs with government agencies actually fixes the transparency complaint Erin Brockovich described, and what the 100+ proposed moratoriums mean for teams planning long-term cloud or AI compute in US regions.