Led by Elizabeth Warren, Chris Van Hollen and Richard Blumenthal and involving seven operators, the investigation focuses on actual employment figures, tax exemptions on equipment and confidentiality agreements.
Following a year of investigation, Democratic Senators Elizabeth Warren, Chris Van Hollen and Richard Blumenthal have published a report targeting seven major data centre developers: Amazon, Google, Meta, Microsoft, CoreWeave, Digital Realty and Equinix. Their conclusion, revealed by TIME, is that some of these companies present the public with a flattering and incomplete picture of the true cost of their projects and the benefits they bring to local communities.
Few jobs, plenty of tax breaks
Operators are keen to highlight construction jobs, but several have refused to quantify the number of permanent jobs. Some estimate this at around one employee per megawatt: a 100 MW site, which consumes roughly as much as 100,000 households, would therefore employ only around a hundred people once built. The report also notes that the most lucrative benefit is not the property tax relief, but the exemption from sales tax on IT equipment, with GPUs accounting for around 39 per cent of the expenditure of a one-gigawatt data centre. The four giants have also regularly demanded confidentiality agreements from local authorities; Microsoft and Amazon say they are waiving these with local authorities, but neither Google nor Meta are doing so.
None of the seven companies has agreed to systematically fund the new electricity infrastructure made necessary by their sites. The report cites the Richland Parish power station in Louisiana, whose acquisition by Entergy is reportedly linked to Meta’s $50 billion (4,500 MW) project and could increase bills by between $8 and $13 per month. These findings are set to fuel the parliamentary push expected following the mid-term elections, whilst the House has already passed the Ratepayer Protection Act by 417 votes to 3.
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