This group Amazon Engineers appeared at Seattle City Council hearings on Wednesday to support efforts to regulate the development of large AI data centers in the area, which are being built while their employer is facing layoffs.
“It’s been reported that this year, Amazon is spending $200 billion in capital, most of which is going to data centers and AI,” said Patrick Schloesser, a software engineer at Amazon Web Services, in the forum. “Microsoft spends $190 billion. Meanwhile, leaders at my company have laid off 30,000 corporate workers in the last eight months. What that tells me is that Big Tech is desperate to build as much computing capacity as possible, as quickly as possible.”
An Amazon spokesperson told CNBC in a statement that the company respects its employees’ right to express their opinions.
Seattle officials have voted to approve a one-year moratorium on new large artificial intelligence data centers to give the city time to regulate the projects. The proposal came after four developers approached a local utility provider to stop building five large buildings in Seattle. Two of those developers have withdrawn their proposals following public outcry, the Seattle Times reported.
“At this time, we have no plans to build data centers within the Seattle city limits,” an Amazon spokesperson said. “In every community where we operate data centers, we are committed to being a good neighbor – investing in local economic development while prioritizing water and energy savings that exceed industry standards.”
Seattle joins a growing list of cities and states seeking to put limits on the explosive growth of AI data centers. According to the National Conference of State Legislatures, 14 states are considering legislation that would temporarily halt or ban new data centers. A report from Data Center Watch found that by 2025, at least $156 billion in data center projects are blocked or delayed amid local opposition and litigation.
Tech’s hyperscalers show no signs of slowing down.
Amazon, MicrosoftParent of Google Alphabetsagain Meta they have committed nearly $700 billion this year to capital expenditures, mostly for AI infrastructure. At the same time, tech giants and others in the industry are looking for ways to cut costs, including layoffs.
The 30,000 Amazon job cuts Schloesser cited have all taken place since October, part of CEO Andy Jassy’s effort to remove layers and back office management so the company can operate as what he calls “the biggest startup in the world.”
In February, Amazon announced that it plans to spend $200 billion in capital expenditures this year, most of which will go toward AI infrastructure. It reaffirmed that prediction in April.
Schloesser, who has worked at Amazon for nearly six years, urged Seattle officials to require data center developers to commit to using renewable energy in power plants and no longer use non-disclosure agreements or shell companies when announcing new projects.
“You have to provide good jobs to build these things, and you have to pay new taxes that fund city jobs every time you lay off more people,” Scloesser said.
Amazon said it continues to reevaluate how its data centers operate, including working to power them carbon-free and make them more energy efficient. The company said it also aims to return more water to communities than it uses in its information centers by 2030.
Schloesser and two other Amazon engineers who spoke at the hearings, Liesl Wigand and Darius Irani, are part of Amazon Employees for Climate Justice. A group of current and former Amazon employees has repeatedly pressed the e-retailer about the climate, labor management and other issues.
In November, the group wrote a letter to Amazon executives asking the company to establish “a more responsible release of AI,” and “get the truth about the costs of AI and the lines of caution we need.”
Wigand, who has worked for Amazon for more than 12 years, commented on Amazon’s push to adopt the technology as “the right AI for all costs.”
“The biggest problem is the belief that AI should be the way we solve everything, while ignoring expensive resources,” Wigand said. “This culture is everywhere in technology. That’s why local governments, in collaboration with community stakeholders, should set goals for building a data center.”
The one-year moratorium was unanimously approved by the Council’s Committee on Land Use and Sustainability on Wednesday.
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