The Servers Hum, but the Terms Remain Hidden

There is a quiet architecture being built across the American landscape—vast warehouses of servers and cooling systems, humming with the electricity that powers artificial intelligence. They arrive with promises of jobs and investment, but often with something else: non-disclosure agreements that keep the terms hidden from the people whose land, water, and electricity bills will be affected. Now, a top Democratic lawmaker is asking whether those secrets can be squared with democratic oversight.

Rep. Jamie Raskin of Maryland, the ranking Democrat on the House Judiciary Committee, sent letters on Tuesday to Amazon, Google, Meta, and Oracle, requesting information about the confidentiality agreements the companies have signed with local government officials regarding data center construction and development . "Residents cannot weigh the costs of a project against its benefits, hold their elected officials accountable, or protect their own resources when key terms remain secret," Raskin wrote, asking for details on each company's total data centers and their use of NDAs .

The inquiry comes at a moment when public frustration with AI data centers is rising. Local communities have cited NDAs and a lack of transparency as key reasons for opposing the facilities. Many residents blame them for higher electricity prices and large water consumption. Consumers across the country have argued they had little opportunity to intervene before massive infrastructure projects were approved near their homes, in some cases subsidized with local resources .

The political stakes are clear. This is an early indication of what AI companies might expect if Democrats retake Congress in November—a prospect that has many in the industry preparing for a wave of requests and hearings. Other Democrats, including three lawmakers leading a House committee on artificial intelligence, have targeted the industry over recent incidents in which AI models breached other companies' systems, while concerns also include the effects of platforms on children .

The response from the companies has been mixed. Amazon said it no longer uses confidentiality agreements with government entities it works with on data center projects. The other three companies did not immediately comment .

The push for transparency extends beyond Washington. In Ohio, Democratic Congressman Greg Landsman has introduced bipartisan legislation called the "No Secrets for Data Centers Act," which would void NDAs signed by government officials that hide details of a data center project and stop companies from accepting government subsidies conditioned on confidentiality . Michigan Republican Congressman Tom Barrett is co-sponsoring the bill. "The recent surge in NDAs is keeping people in the dark about how a data center might affect their land, their water, and their electric bills, until it's too late," Barrett said in a statement .

In Australia, a Senate inquiry into AI data centers has called OpenAI CEO Sam Altman and Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei to appear before it, with Greens Senator Sarah Hanson-Young saying AI companies "need to earn their social license" through "transparency and accountability" . The question of who gets to decide where these facilities are built, and on what terms, is becoming a global one.

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Sources: The Wall Street Journal, Reuters, AP News, FOX19, Australian Greens