WASHINGTON -- Amazon’s cloud computing division said on Friday it would invest more than US$1 billion over the next five years in U.S. communities where it has data centres and vowed to tackle their impacts on electricity and water usage. Data centres, 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 U.S. midterm elections on November 3. Amazon said it had invested $276 billion in data centres 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 U.S. where it has data centres. The company in a lengthy statement sought to rebut criticism of data centres tied to environmental, energy and economic impacts and noted there were more than 100 data centre moratoriums being considered across the country. “There is urgency to this data centre 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 centres by 2030 by returning more water to communities than it uses and said it was 75 per cent of the way toward its goal. (Reporting by David Shepardson; Editing by Jamie Freed)
