AWS head says Amazon needs to be more vocal about data center services: 'Do you not want to use Netflix?'
· Business Insider
Noah Berger/Getty Images for Amazon Web Services
- AWS CEO Matt Garman says Amazon needs to be more "vocal" in how it talks about data centers.
- He said the tech giant should focus on how data centers support everyday services like watching Netflix.
- Garman previously warned that data center moratoriums could set the US back by decades.
AWS CEO Matt Garman says he wants Amazon to be more upfront about how data centers already affect daily life.
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"If you usually go to a community and say, 'Do you not want to use Netflix?' They'll go, 'No, no, I still want Netflix,'" Garman said during a recent interview on the "A16z Show" podcast.
Garman's point is that services like Netflix, which rely on AWS' cloud, require the very data centers that Americans increasingly oppose. His comments underscore how the industry is trying to respond to data centers becoming a political pariah.
"I think we need to be more vocal and be more upfront because we actually do a ton that's really beneficial," he said.
Netflix has been an Amazon customer for years. In 2016, Netflix said it decided it needed to move to the cloud after a 2008 disruption that left it unable to ship DVDs out to customers for three days. In its 2025 annual report, the streaming giant said it runs "the vast majority of our computing on AWS," to the point that switching to another provider would be difficult.
Garman previously laid out Amazon's opposition to data center moratoriums, which he said would stifle the nation's largest infrastructure buildout on a scale comparable to the creation of the Interstate Highway System and risk ceding the lead in the global AI race.
"If these measures are enacted, the U.S. could be writing its own losing ticket to this race, and the consequences would last generations," he wrote on October 2. "As a country, we can't afford to find ourselves in that position."
Polling shows that Americans remain overwhelmingly opposed to the construction of AI data centers in their communities.
A Fox News survey conducted last month found that more than 7 out of 10 (71%) of registered voters said they opposed building a data center in their area to support AI development. Previous surveys have also found that majorities oppose such construction.
Business Insider has previously reported that some state leaders are backing away from their support for data centers as the issue becomes a political liability for incumbents.
In addition to the services data centers provide, Garman said that Amazon's development has benefited the tax bases of local communities. He also said the tech giant will continue to expand its support for areas that welcome such development.
"I think we just need to be more clear about those benefits that we bring because I think if you told the communities, 'By the way, your tax bill is $5,000 less than it would otherwise be if we weren't here,'" he said, "they might have a little bit of different thought about the building that's over there."
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