Amazon Drops NDAs in Local Data Center Negotiations

Amazon said it will no longer use nondisclosure agreements while negotiating with local governments over data centers. The company announced the change on October 11, 2026.

The commitment was included in a longer blog post in which Amazon argued that data centers are good for communities. The statement came in the middle of that post, rather than as a standalone announcement.

Amazon followed Microsoft in making this commitment. Microsoft had previously made a similar pledge, and Amazon is now adopting the same position for its own negotiations with local officials.

Background

The use of NDAs in local negotiations has been a subject of debate. In the mid-2010s, Uber frequently used secret negotiations with local governments, including a case in a city outside Orlando over tax subsidies for rides. More recently, a one-year moratorium on permits for large data center projects was passed in New York and later described as lasting until a state environmental review is finalized, and a data center moratorium was recently passed in San Francisco.