Amazon ends NDA use in data center negotiations with governments

By Splitfeed EditorialLast updated Oct 9, 2026, 17:00 UTC

Amazon announced on October 9, 2026 that it will stop requiring non-disclosure agreements when negotiating data center deals with local governments across the United States. The move follows a similar policy change made by Microsoft earlier in 2026, suggesting a broader industry shift away from the confidentiality terms that have historically shielded the details of large infrastructure agreements from public view.

The context matters because the secrecy surrounding these deals has been a significant driver of community resistance to data center expansion. That resistance has translated into hundreds of proposed and enacted moratoriums on new data center construction, spread across the country from New York to San Francisco. Those moratoriums represent a real constraint on the buildout of AI infrastructure, which depends heavily on new facilities for computing power. Whether removing NDAs meaningfully addresses the underlying concerns, or whether it is a procedural concession that leaves deeper disputes about land use, energy consumption, and local impact unresolved, is the central question the policy change leaves open.

No camp has published specific reactions to this story yet. The Pro-AI camp would typically frame the NDA rollback as a sign of corporate accountability and a constructive step toward unlocking the infrastructure AI development requires. The Anti-AI camp would typically argue that transparency in negotiations does not address the substantive harms communities associate with data centers, including strain on local power grids and water supplies, and that disclosure without binding community input changes little. The Middle Ground camp would typically welcome the transparency move while pressing for enforceable public consultation processes to accompany it, treating openness as necessary but not sufficient.

The question worth watching is whether the moratoriums already enacted begin to be reconsidered now that Amazon and Microsoft have adjusted their negotiation practices, and whether other major operators follow with similar policy changes in the months ahead.