Amazon Web Services CEO Matt Garman announced the Built Together program in an Oct. 2 corporate post that also defended the company’s data center build-out. He compared the build-out to public benefit projects such as the interstate highway system, and wrote that Amazon understands communities’ “apprehension” about data centers. Still, he wrote, the more than 100 proposed data center moratoriums under construction could sideline the U.S. from the AI race. 

“If these measures are enacted, the U.S. could be writing its own losing ticket to this race, and the consequences would last generations,” Garman wrote. “As a country, we can’t afford to find ourselves in that position.”

Amazon isn’t the only hyperscaler trying to make the data center boom easier for host communities to accept. Microsoft pledged in January to cover the electricity and grid costs tied to its facilities, and Meta said it invested more than $550 million in water and wastewater infrastructure in its data center communities. 

What Amazon is offering

Built Together targets common complaints dogging data center projects—that they raise energy bills, strain local infrastructure, and don’t deliver enough lasting benefits to residents.

Those concerns have become harder for hyperscalers to ignore. New York imposed a statewide moratorium on new large data centers in July, and opposition spread to major data center markets like Virginia, where only 35% of people said in March that they’d be comfortable with a new facility being built there, according to a Washington Post and Schar School poll. Amazon itself is facing resistance in Loudoun County, Va., where officials are objecting to a proposed 800,000-square-foot data center project on the former George Washington University Virginia Science and Technology campus. 

Built Together is Amazon’s attempt to answer those objections with more direct benefits for host communities. Amazon said it will cover students’ remaining community college costs after financial aid for certain certificates and associate degrees, including programs in HVAC, fiber optics, and IT, and estimates more than 300,000 students could gain access over five years. The company also said its skilled trades centers plan to train up to 100,000 workers a year for jobs with Amazon and its construction partners by the end of 2028.

The company also plans to fund energy efficiency upgrades for more than 30,000 homes and more than 300 schools and community buildings. Local officials and community groups will help steer funding toward projects such as roads, parks, fire equipment, affordable housing, and food assistance.

“Working with county officials and trusted community organizations, we will identify the highest-impact investments and provide annual funding with transparent reporting on outcomes,” Garman wrote. “This is not Amazon deciding what communities need—it is Amazon providing resources and letting communities decide.”

Amazon is also using the Built Together announcement to push back on some causes of the backlash. Garman wrote that data centers are unfairly blamed for higher electricity bills and water use, and that aging grids are at fault for rising energy bills in some states.

“In instances where energy rates are going up, it’s primarily because the grid is old and hasn’t been invested in and expanded before the demand arrived,” he wrote. 

He also said Amazon’s average data center uses less than 13,000 gallons of water per day and said the facilities deliver tax revenue and construction jobs to host communities. In St. Joseph County, Ind., Amazon estimates it will pay more than $3 billion in taxes over the same period, compared with $1.2 million that the land’s previous use would have generated.