The company said the investment would focus on addressing local priorities, including education, job training, energy affordability, and water and energy preservation.
The announcement comes as data centres, which provide the computing infrastructure needed to train and run artificial intelligence models, face growing opposition across the United States. Communities have raised concerns over rising electricity demand, utility costs, water consumption and other local impacts.
Amazon said it invested $276 billion in data centres between 2011 and 2025, with major projects and expansions underway in several states, including Indiana, Louisiana, North Carolina, Virginia and Mississippi.
In a lengthy statement, AWS also sought to address criticism of the environmental, energy and economic effects of data centres, noting that more than 100 data centre moratoriums were being considered across the country.
“There is urgency to this data center buildout because we aren’t the only country that sees the benefits of AI for the economy and national security, and the countries that lead in AI will shape it and get the most from it,” AWS CEO Matt Garman said.
AWS also pledged to become water positive across its data centres by 2030, meaning it aims to return more water to communities than it uses. The company said it had already achieved 75% of the progress required to meet that target.
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