AWS head says Amazon needs to be more vocal about data center services: ‘Do you not want to use Netflix?’

AWS CEO Matt Garman says he wants Amazon to be more upfront about how data centers already affect daily life.

“If you usually go to a community and say, ‘Do you not want to use Netflix?’ They’ll go, ‘No, no, I still want Netflix,'” Garman said during a recent interview on the “A16z Show” podcast.

Garman’s point is that services like Netflix, which rely on AWS’ cloud, require the very data centers that Americans increasingly oppose. His comments underscore how the industry is trying to respond to data centers becoming a political pariah.

“I think we need to be more vocal and be more upfront because we actually do a ton that’s really beneficial,” he said.

Netflix has been an Amazon customer for years. In 2016, Netflix said it decided it needed to move to the cloud after a 2008 disruption that left it unable to ship DVDs out to customers for three days. In its 2025 annual report, the streaming giant said it runs “the vast majority of our computing…