Amazon will stop using nondisclosure agreements when it negotiates data center deals with local governments. The company made the commitment in a statement reported by TechCrunch. Microsoft made a similar move earlier this year.
The change addresses a growing source of friction. Secrecy around these deals has fueled community backlash against AI infrastructure. That opposition has produced hundreds of proposed and enacted moratoriums on data center construction, spanning locations from New York to San Francisco.
Data centers draw large amounts of power and water, and local officials often approve them with limited public information. Confidentiality agreements have typically kept details such as project scope, incentives, and resource demands out of public view until final approval. Residents and local governments have pushed back on that arrangement, and the public debate has grown more heated as AI companies expand their computing capacity.
The TechCrunch report frames the policy shift as a test of whether greater transparency can rebuild trust. The source material does not detail how Amazon will implement the change, what disclosure obligations it will accept, or how the policy will apply to specific pending projects. Those details will determine whether the commitment changes outcomes for communities weighing these deals.
The same TechCrunch AI feed also reported on a wave of startups