Amazon commits more than $1 billion to data center communities

Amazon committed Friday to donating more than $1 billion over five years to communities neighboring its data centers, Ars Technica reported. AWS chief executive Matt Garman said communities would choose priorities including education, job training, energy affordability and water preservation. Amazon also promised that its data centers would not increase power bills or deplete local water supplies. Environmental group Stand.Earth criticized the commitments, pointing to Amazon's backing of a power plant that experts expect to become the largest source of US climate pollution.