Amazon to invest $1 billion over five years in US data center communities

WASHINGTON: Amazon’s cloud computing division said on Friday it would invest more than $1 billion over the next five years in US communities where it has data centers and vowed to tackle their impacts on electricity and water usage.

Data centers, which provide the computing power ​to train and run AI models, have drawn opposition in communities nationwide over concerns about electricity demand, utility costs and other local impacts. The ⁠backlash poses a political challenge for Republicans heading into the US midterm elections on November 3.