For years, the giant buildings powering the AI boom often arrived with a gag order attached. Amazon Web Services now says it will stop asking for one.
On October 2, 2026, AWS CEO Matt Garman announced that the company will no longer enter into nondisclosure agreements with government agencies for its data center projects. That puts Amazon alongside Microsoft, which made a similar commitment to end NDAs with local governments in March 2026.
What Amazon actually promised
An NDA in this context works a bit like a surprise party nobody asked for. A town council negotiates with a tech company, but officials agree not to tell residents the details until the deal is far along.
Garman’s pledge removes that layer for AWS. Government agencies working with Amazon on data center projects will no longer be bound to keep those conversations confidential.
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He positioned the change as one piece of a wider push to repair relations with the communities that host these facilities. The other headline piece is a new program called Built Together.
Through Built Together, AWS has pledged more than $1 billion over the next five years. The money is earmarked for community projects in areas that host its data centers, focused on education, job creation and energy accessibility.
The calendar adds another wrinkle. On September 30, 2026, Rep. Jamie Raskin opened a congressional inquiry seeking clarity on NDA practices from big tech companies, including Amazon and Google. AWS announced its policy change two days later.
Why the secrecy became a liability
The pushback has turned measurable. More than 100 data center moratoriums are currently under consideration across the US.
Both AWS and Microsoft framed their NDA decisions as responses to mounting public scrutiny and local opposition. When residents feel deals were struck behind closed doors, confidentiality clauses become a convenient symbol of everything they distrust about the process.
What this means for Big Tech’s AI buildout
For local governments, the change is practical. Officials negotiating with AWS can now discuss terms with constituents without legal constraints hanging over the conversation.
The $1 billion Built Together commitment fits the same logic. Goodwill in host communities could reduce future friction. Still, the figure is spread over five years and across multiple communities, so its local impact will depend heavily on how the money is distributed.
The competitive question now points squarely at Google. It was named alongside Amazon in Raskin’s inquiry, and with Microsoft and AWS both publicly abandoning government NDAs, the pressure to explain its own practices is unlikely to fade.
Disclosure: This article was edited by Diego Almada Lopez. For more information on how we create and review content, see our Editorial Policy.