Amazon has announced that it will no longer use non-disclosure agreements (NDAs) when negotiating data center deals with local governments. The company is following Microsoft, which took a similar step earlier this year.
The secrecy surrounding data center projects is said to be fueling community backlash against AI infrastructure. That backlash has led to hundreds of proposed moratoriums and enacted bans, from New York to San Francisco.
Meanwhile, a group of startups is betting that consumers will grant AI agents access to their inboxes, files, and credit cards — provided websites allow those agents in.
In this episode of TechCrunch’s Equity podcast, Anthony Ha, Sean O’Kane, and Rebecca Bellan discuss: whether abandoning NDAs will change the way data center deals get done, whether trust is the real product for personal AI startups, and a few of the week’s investment deals.
The story was published by TechCrunch audio producer Theresa Loconsolo on October 9, 2026. Before joining TechCrunch in 2022, Loconsolo worked as a producer at a media group with four stations, and she holds a bachelor’s degree in Communication from Monmouth University.
Background
Amazon is not a new name in the FikirPilot archive: in the last 90 days we have published 13 stories mentioning it; the most recent is dated October 7, 2026.
Term: data center
A data center is a facility where servers are housed together with cooling and uninterrupted power; the debate over the electricity and water consumption of AI investments plays out around these facilities.