A bunch of Amazon engineers appeared at Seattle Metropolis Council hearings on Wednesday to throw their help behind efforts to control the event of large AI data centers in the realm, that are getting constructed while their employer is engaged in mass layoffs.
“It has been reported that this yr, Amazon is spending $200 billion on capital, with most of it going to data centers and AI,” Patrick Schloesser, a software program engineer at Amazon Internet Providers, stated at a listening to. “Microsoft is spending $190 billion. In the meantime, the leaders at my firm have laid off 30,000 company workers in the final eight months. What that tells me is that Massive Tech is determined to construct as a lot compute capability as it may possibly, as quick as it may possibly.”
An Amazon spokesperson advised CNBC in an announcement that the corporate respects its colleagues’ proper to voice their opinions.
Officers in Seattle voted to approve a one-year moratorium on new large-scale synthetic intelligence data centers to permit time for the town to control the tasks. The proposal got here after 4 builders approached an area utility supplier to pitch building 5 large-scale amenities in Seattle. Two of these builders have since withdrawn their proposals following public outcry, The Seattle Occasions reported.
“Presently, we have no plans to assemble data centers inside the Seattle metropolis limits,” the Amazon spokesperson stated. “Throughout the communities the place we do function data centers, we’re dedicated to being a accountable neighbor — investing in native financial improvement while prioritizing water and power effectivity that exceeds business requirements.”
Seattle joins a rising listing of cities and counties which are looking for to position limits on the explosive progress of AI data centers. In keeping with the Nationwide Convention of State Legislatures, 14 states are contemplating laws that may pause or ban new data centers. A report from Data Middle Watch discovered that in 2025, a minimum of $156 billion in data heart tasks have been blocked or delayed amid native opposition and litigation.
Tech’s hyperscalers are displaying no indicators of slowing down.
Amazon, Microsoft, Google mum or dad Alphabet and Meta have dedicated roughly $700 billion this yr to capital expenditures, largely for AI infrastructure. On the identical time, the tech giants and others in the business are trying for methods to chop prices, together with via layoffs.
The 30,000 company job cuts at Amazon that Schloesser cited have all come since October, a part of an try by CEO Andy Jassy to take away layers and slash paperwork so the corporate can function like what he calls the “world’s largest startup.”
In February, Amazon introduced it plans to spend $200 billion on capital expenditures this yr, with the vast majority of that going towards AI infrastructure. It reaffirmed that forecast in April.
Schloesser, who has labored at Amazon for almost six years, urged Seattle officers to require data heart builders to decide to utilizing renewable power to energy amenities and now not use nondisclosure agreements or shell corporations when asserting new tasks.
“You have to present good jobs building this stuff, and you have to pay a brand new tax that funds metropolis jobs each time you conduct a big layoff,” Schloesser stated.
Amazon stated it continues to reevaluate how its data centers function, together with working to energy them with carbon-free power and make them extra energy-efficient. The corporate stated it was additionally aiming to return extra water to communities than it makes use of in its data centers by 2030.
Schloesser and the 2 different Amazon engineers who spoke on the hearings, Liesl Wigand and Darius Irani, are a part of Amazon Workers for Local weather Justice. The group of present and former Amazon staff has repeatedly pressed the e-retailer on its local weather stance, therapy of its workforce and different points.
In November, the group penned a letter to Amazon executives calling on the corporate to determine a “extra accountable rollout of AI,” and “get actual in regards to the prices of AI and the guardrails we’d like.”
Wigand, who has labored for Amazon for greater than 12 years, characterised Amazon’s push to embrace the expertise as an “all-costs-justified AI build-out.”
“The most important concern is a perception that AI must be how we resolve all the pieces, while ignoring the assets that it prices,” Wigand stated. “This tradition is omnipresent throughout tech. That is why native governments, in collaboration with neighborhood stakeholders, must be setting the phrases for data heart build-out.”
The one-year moratorium was accepted unanimously by the council’s Land Use and Sustainability Committee on Wednesday.
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