Amazon Web Services, the cloud unit of Amazon.com Inc. (NASDAQ:AMZN), plans to invest more than $1 billion over five years in U.S. communities hosting its data centers. The funding will support education, job training, energy affordability, water preservation, energy preservation and other local priorities. AWS also pledged to address the facilities' impact on electricity and water use, and said it is 75% of the way toward becoming water positive by 2030, meaning it would return more water to communities than it uses. The announcement comes as data-center projects face growing resistance over power demand, utility costs and local environmental effects. Gallup found in May that 71% of Americans opposed building AI data centers in their local area, compared with 53% who opposed nearby nuclear power plants. Data Center Watch estimated that about $130 billion in U.S. data-center projects were blocked or delayed in the first quarter. AWS said more than 100 data-center moratoriums are being considered nationwide, creating a potential capital-spending and political challenge ahead of the Nov. 3 midterm elections. Amazon said it invested $276 billion in data centers between 2011 and 2025 and has major projects or expansions underway in Indiana, Louisiana, North Carolina, Virginia and Mississippi. AWS CEO Matt Garman said the data-center buildout is urgent because other countries also recognize AI's economic and national-security benefits, adding that countries leading in AI will shape the technology and gain the most from it.