July 8, 2026

The Secret Data Center Buildout

How States can Stop Big Tech’s Abuse of NDAs

By Deanna Noël

Seven in ten Americans oppose AI data centers in their communities—and Big Tech knows it. That’s why tech giants like Amazon, Google, Meta, and xAI are locking public officials behind non-disclosure agreements and concealing project details from communities until developers have secured permits, subsidies, and approvals. By the time many residents learn that a data center deal is on the table, it’s often too late to meaningfully engage. 

The secrecy playbook 

Public officials across the country are signing non-disclosure agreements (NDAs) with data center developers, locking the public out of decisions that will directly affect their communities. In Virginia, home to the world’s largest concentration of data centers, 80% of localities with proposed or existing data centers have NDAs in place. While electricity demand could triple in the state by 2050, these secrecy agreements are shutting the public out of decisions that could shape their rates for decades. In drought-stricken Tucson, Arizona, Amazon Web Services and developer Beale Infrastructure spent nearly two years negotiating a $3.6 billion, 290-acre data center campus behind NDAs, keeping the public in the dark about projected water usage and other community impacts. 

In fossil fuel-burdened Shreveport, Louisiana, residents learned about a $12 billion investment in Amazon data center campuses spanning multiple parishes—and a proposal to sell up to five million gallons of water a day to cool them—only when the Governor announced the deal, and after local officials had spent months concealing the details behind NDAs. And Elon Musk, through his company xAI, locked government officials behind NDAs to conceal details of the now high-profile, incredibly unpopular, and polluting “Colossus” data centers in Memphis. Residents learned of the project weeks before it began operating. 

Adding yet another layer of secrecy to the decision-making process, the xAI deal in Memphis and many others are negotiated between shell companies and government officials, concealing the identity of the tech companies behind the project. While Microsoft has responded to public pressure with a pledge to stop requiring NDAs with local governments, every other major tech corporation continues to operate in the shadows.

The costs of the data center buildout

The impacts of this massive, unregulated, and secretive buildout are felt far and wide: AI data centers are giving rise to rising electricity bills, massive water withdrawals, incessant noise and light pollution, grandiose job creation claims that don’t pan out, health risks from dirty on-site diesel, new fossil fuel infrastructure in already overburdened communities, land grabs and threats to property values, and beyond. Communities are being kept in the dark about deals that could raise their electricity bills for years to come and fundamentally transform their communities. 

Despite these harms, the Trump administration continues to unabashedly put corporate interests first by pushing a build-at-all-costs agenda. The federal government has loosened environmental regulations, gutted NEPA, and fast-tracked permits for AI data centers and their fossil fuel infrastructure, even as mounting concerns suggest the entire buildout is riding on a speculative bubble. The only people benefiting are the Trump administration’s Big Tech and Big Oil donors.

An opportunity for state leadership 

Data center expansion has become a defining issue on the campaign trail, as grassroots opposition grows in both red and blue states and lawmakers scramble to respond. State legislators introduced over 300 bills in the first half of 2026 to regulate the buildout, and temporary moratoriums are passing at the county, city, and Tribal levels, with at least 15 states considering similar measures. Lawmakers in at least ten states have also introduced bills to restrict or ban NDAs in data center deals. 

Communities deserve transparency, accountability, and a seat at the table, not to be sidelined and taken advantage of by Big Tech billionaires. 

Here are seven ways state governments can stop secret data center deals:

1. Prohibit elected officials, public employees, and their staff from entering into NDAs with any company pursuing a data center deal in their state or local jurisdiction. Include an inclusive definition of who is considered a public employee to avoid loopholes.
2. Subject elected officials, public employees, and their staff to a civil fine for signing a prohibited NDA.
3. Require public officials to publicly report any NDA they have already signed in connection with a data center project.
4. Put companies on the record by requiring data center developers and owner/operators publicly report any previous or current data center deals locked behind NDAs, and demand Big Tech and data center developers sign a “no NDA pledge.”
5. Require public notice any time a local government takes action on a data center application, such as rezoning or tax abatement, to identify deals early. 
6. Set a high bar of transparency and accountability by requiring data center developers and owner/operators to publicly report essential information and follow baseline criteria established to protect local communities, the environment, and the climate. 
   1. At a minimum, the public should know the identities of the developer and owner/operator of a data center (if a developer builds a data center on spec, the developer must disclose the owner/operator as soon as possible); the size and number of data centers that will be included in a proposed project; the estimated water and energy use; details on how a facility plans to meet its energy demand; proposed financial incentives; and noise and light pollution impacts.
   2. Baseline criteria should include the following requirements: banning NDAs; procuring 100% renewable energy; implementing strong water conservation measures and prohibitions to build in areas without adequate water resources; requiring Big Tech pay its fair share to protect ratepayers while affirmatively lowering electricity rates for moderate- and low- income families; committing to local hiring and high-quality apprenticeship programs; establishing decommissioning bonds to protect the public and government from shouldering future cleanup and remediation costs; and more. See Public Citizen’s policy guide for a full list of recommendations. 
7. Give the public a seat at the table. Local communities deserve to have a say in major development deals that will reshape their community. Policymakers must require a robust and transparent community engagement process that lasts from project inception through completion. 

The abuse of NDAs is an abuse of democracy. The people and our government should not be governed by billionaires and corporate interests. But that is just what the abuse of NDAs is doing—giving billionaires and their corporate connections the ability to develop where they want and how they want, with no consideration for the public interest. 

State and local governments must respond with urgency to growing public outrage and listen to the people—not Big Tech, Big Oil, or any other corporate class.