Shares of Amazon AMZN climbed about 1.5% in Friday morning trading after its cloud unit said it plans to invest more than $1 billion over five years in U.S. communities that host its data centers.
Amazon Web Services said the initiative will support local priorities including education, workforce development, energy affordability, and conservation efforts involving water and electricity, according to a Friday press release.
The spending comes as the expansion of data centers for artificial intelligence workloads has drawn scrutiny over power demand, utility costs and water consumption. AWS said more than 100 proposals for data-center moratoriums are being considered across the U.S.
Amazon said it invested $276 billion in data centers from 2011 through 2025, with major projects or expansions underway in several states, including Indiana, Louisiana, North Carolina, Virginia and Mississippi.
AWS also said it aims to become water positive across its data-center network by 2030, meaning it…
