Amazon pledges more than $1B over five years to data-center towns

Amazon will add more than $1 billion over the next five years for education, job training, energy and water programs in U.S. data-center communities, AWS CEO Matt Garman wrote Friday announcing Built Together.

The money is on top of what Amazon says it already spends there. Garman also set out tenets called the Amazon Data Center Commitment. Every figure below is Amazon’s.

What’s in Built Together

Amazon says the program, starting in the U.S., lets communities steer funds across education, job training, energy affordability, water and energy preservation, and other local priorities.

On education and workforce, Amazon says it will cover out-of-pocket costs after aid for community-college certificates or associate’s degrees in fields such as electrical work, HVAC, fiber optics, IT, healthcare and advanced manufacturing. It says it has started agreements with local community colleges and plans to launch in the next few months. Over five years, it estimates more than 300,000 students will get free degree access.

Amazon is also expanding Modular Training Centers near data-center sites for free skilled-trades certifications with paths to jobs at Amazon and its construction partners. It operates three centers, has six under development, and plans 16 more. By the end of 2028, Amazon says, the centers are meant to prepare up to 100,000 workers a year.

On energy and water, Amazon says grants with nonprofits, utilities and state energy offices will fund efficiency upgrades at schools, community buildings and homes in its data-center counties. The five-year target is more than 300 schools and community buildings and more than 30,000 homes, with household savings Amazon puts at about $700 a year. Separately, it says it has already contracted for more than 65 water projects worldwide expected to return more than 8 billion gallons a year for local use.

A third pillar, Amazon says, sends millions of dollars a year in each community through local nonprofits and community foundations toward priorities residents name — roads, parks, fire department equipment, affordable housing, food security and schools — with annual reporting.

Why it matters

The pledge lands as Amazon argues data-center buildout is national infrastructure and answers local water, power-bill and pollution critiques in the same post. Separately, Garman says Amazon has contributed more than $1 billion over the past three years to U.S. data-center communities — a prior figure, not the new five-year add. Built Together packages community spending Amazon says towns asked for. Garman says the Data Center Commitment codifies practices Amazon already follows. The post is not an audit of past spending or a guarantee the targets will be met.

What’s next

• Whether Amazon names the first community-college partners and Modular Training Center sites, and when they open.
• How Amazon reports annual Built Together dollars and outcomes against the five-year “more than $1 billion” addition.
• Local uptake of the school, building and home energy grants once the program rolls out in the coming months, per Amazon.

— Lark Pemberton