Amazon Web Services barred Pima County, Arizona, from revealing even that the two were discussing a data-center project without AWS’s written consent. Residents could be kept in the dark about talks their county was having on their behalf, subject to public-records law.
On October 2, 2026, Amazon said it had stopped using nondisclosure agreements with government agencies on data-center projects. The change removes a restriction the company had used, but Amazon has not said whether it has released agencies from agreements already signed.
The Pima County agreement, signed March 1, 2023, concerned AWS’s Project Blue. It required the county to keep the existence of its discussions confidential unless AWS gave written consent, while preserving disclosures required by public-records law.
The restriction became concrete when Pima County supervisors voted 3-2 in June 2025 to sell land for Project Blue. Records later showed the county had agreed to keep AWS’s involvement confidential for up to five years.
Virginia supplied another example. The Piedmont Environmental Council, which sued Orange County for records concerning a proposed development that included data centers, reported that the county turned over NDAs signed by 10 local officials for Amazon’s benefit. The council obtained the agreements through litigation, not through a voluntary disclosure by the county.
The timing of Amazon’s reversal is hard to miss. On September 30, Representative Jamie Raskin opened an inquiry into Amazon and three other companies’ use of data-center NDAs. Two days later came Amazon’s policy announcement. In the same statement, Matt Garman, chief executive of AWS, said more than 100 proposed data-center moratoriums were under consideration nationwide.
Amazon paired the NDA change with a pledge of more than $1 billion in additional community investment over five years. If spread evenly, that would be more than $200 million a year on average. Garman said communities would choose priorities including education, job training and energy affordability. The money is a future commitment. The Pima County agreement is a record of a restriction already imposed.
There is also a boundary in Amazon’s wording: its new policy names government agencies. WIRED reported an NDA signed with a contractor on an Amazon project and said Amazon did not answer whether contractors negotiating on its behalf are covered. Nor has Amazon said whether existing agency agreements are released.
Other routes to transparency, including the EU’s data-center disclosure system, concern what information becomes available, not merely who is permitted to speak. Amazon’s change removes one documented obstacle to public discussion. Whether Pima County and other agencies can now discuss talks covered by their old agreements remains unanswered.
Further Reading
- Amazon’s data-center policy statement, Sets out the NDA change and community-investment pledge.
- Pima County’s Project Blue nondisclosure agreement, The signed agreement with AWS.
- House Judiciary Democrats’ press release on data-center NDAs, Announces Raskin’s inquiry.
- Amazon Says It’s No Longer Using NDAs for Data Centers, Reports the unanswered question about contractors.
- PEC lawsuit confirms abuse of FOIA by Orange County for the benefit of Amazon, Describes the agreements obtained after the council’s lawsuit.