With host communities across the U.S. turning against their gargantuan data centers, America's technology giants are promising to take fewer taxpayer handouts, keep fewer secrets or shower more money onto the communities willing to allow the server warehouses.
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giants → turn → warehouses
The new raft of promises from the world's richest companies comes as anti-data center sentiment has become a potent issue in the midterm elections, with control of Congress and 36 governors' offices on the line.
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control → come → line
Despite backing from President Donald Trump, the data centers powering the artificial intelligence boom have become politically toxic.
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centers → power → boom
Community opposition that blocks municipal permits has become a bottleneck, and tech giants could face even more challenges if voters next month elect more public officials who are skeptical of data centers.
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who → block → centers
The tech industry says it has gotten the message.
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it → say → message
In addition to ramping up financial incentives, officials with Google and Meta said in interviews with The Associated Press they are trying to address mistrust by being more transparent with communities where they would like to build.
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they → ramp → communities
Companies are also making pledges to reduce their impact on the environment and offering assurances that data centers will boost local property values — all while maintaining AI is a positive force for the American economy, despite its skeptics.
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AI → make → skeptics
Tech giants pledge more transparency
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giants → pledge → transparency
Devi Thomas, Google’s global head of community development and engagement, told AP that she wouldn’t call resistance to data centers a “backlash,” but that “there are often community questions to be addressed.”
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she → tell → centers
We have done as much as we can to make sure communities are involved early on,” Thomas said.
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Thomas → do → much
Earlier this month, Amazon rolled out its “Amazon Data Center Commitment," including pledges to improve the environmental rating of its backup diesel generators and disclose more about its data centers' energy and water use.
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Amazon → roll → use
It also said — as have Microsoft and Google — that it had stopped requiring government officials to sign non-disclosure agreements.
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it → say → agreements
The use of non-disclosure agreements has meant people in host communities may know little or nothing about a project until it shows up on a municipal board’s voting agenda.
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it → mean → agenda
Besides that, tech companies often have hidden their involvement in a project behind a code name and developers who do the legwork with local governments, critics and other developers say.
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critics → hide → governments
That practice “raises people’s suspicion as to what’s truly happening,” said Anita Verma-Lallian, a developer with data center projects in Arizona.
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Lallian → raise → Arizona
Meta is always evaluating how well it shares information with communities, said Lindsay Elin, Meta’s vice president of public policy and external affairs.
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Elin → evaluate → policy
“As part of that work, we are reviewing our use of non-disclosure agreements,” she said in a statement to the AP.
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she → review → AP
In a report this month that sharply criticized data center giants including Amazon, Google, Meta and Microsoft, several Senate Democrats said companies have used non-disclosure agreements to freeze out the public.
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companies → criticize → public
The report also said the companies aggressively seek state and local tax breaks and do not cover the entire cost of the electric-grid buildout needed for energy-hungry data centers.
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companies → say → centers
Spending ramps up in host communities, along with skepticism
The dominant players in the industry — Amazon, Google, Meta, and Microsoft — project they’ll spend more than $600 billion this year combined on capital projects, primarily data center construction in the U.S.
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they → ramp → U.S.
Even as the companies prepare to spend more to entice communities — payments that some critics call “bribes” — Trump urged them in a social media post Wednesday to pay people and communities a “dividend” if they “want to make their Data Centers popular.”
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Centers → prepare → dividend
“MAKE DEALS, and get them built!!!
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them → make → DEALS
GREAT FOR THE U.S.A.,” Trump wrote.
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Trump → write → U.S.A.
Meta and Amazon said recently they will each spend $1 billion on financial incentives to host communities in the coming years, on top of millions they already spend to support schools, charities and job training.
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they → say → schools
Google says its investments in local programs in data center communities will reach $1 billion by the end of 2027.
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investments → say → 2027
Microsoft has pointed to a couple local tax breaks that it will forego.
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it → point → that
And Google recently said for all of its new data center campuses, the company will pay full real property taxes on the buildings and land.
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company → say → buildings
The companies have known since last fall that community opposition was becoming a serious problem.
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opposition → know → fall
Data center demand began driving up electric bills last year across a 13-state electricity grid stretching from Illinois to New Jersey and Maryland, angering ratepayers.
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demand → drive → ratepayers
The outcry led to promises from the tech giants to pay the cost of the power infrastructure to feed their data centers, while Microsoft rolled out its five-point “Community-First AI Infrastructure” plan.
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Microsoft → lead → plan
Data centers’ critics aren’t persuaded.
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critics → persuade → ?
Sam Burleigh, who helped start Concerned Citizens of Montour County in rural northern Pennsylvania to fight a potential Amazon-backed data center project, said the company's commitments are “propaganda."
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commitments → start → project
“What I see is them realizing they have more resistance than they ever dreamt of.
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they → see → resistance
And so now they have to find some way, some method to break through that resistance,” Burleigh said.
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Burleigh → have → resistance
Kathryn Hoffman, executive director of the Minnesota Center for Environmental Advocacy, which has sued over two prospective Google data centers, said she sees Google doing more public relations outreach, but she doesn’t see it doing more to disclose critical details about its plans.
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it → sue → plans
Political stakes are rising
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stakes → rise → ?
In an Aug. 18 memo, the Senate Republicans’ national campaign arm crystallized the midterm election pressure on the tech giants.
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arm → crystallize → giants
It warned the tech sector that it must “fix the toxic brand of an entire segment of the economy” or risk long-term fallout in elections.
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it → warn → elections
That included addressing "who benefits, who pays, and why a community should want one."
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community → include → one
Drew Nations, a developer in North Carolina, said developers need to aggressively address quality-of-life complaints from neighbors.
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developers → say → neighbors
…and 10 more, not listed.
The Aporia
