Engineers at e-commerce giant Amazon (AMZN) are protesting the company’s efforts to continue building artificial intelligence (A.I.) data centres after laying off 30,000 employees.
A group of Amazon engineers appeared at Seattle City Council to throw their support behind efforts to regulate the development of giant A.I. data centres in the area.
Officials in Seattle, where Amazon is headquartered, voted to approve a one-year moratorium on large-scale A.I. data centres to allow time for the city to regulate the projects.
The moratorium comes after a group of developers pitched building five large scale data centres in the Seattle area.
Seattle joins a growing list of cities and states that are seeking to place limits on the growth of A.I. data centres.
A report from Data Center Watch found that, in 2025, at least $156 billion U.S. in data centre projects across the U.S. were blocked or delayed due to local opposition and lawsuits.
The backlash arrives as Amazon, Microsoft (MSFT), Google parent Alphabet (GOOGL), and Meta Platforms (META) have committed to spend a combined $700 billion U.S. on A.I. this year.
Most of that money is earmarked for A.I. infrastructure and data centres.
At the same time, the technology companies are looking for ways to cut costs and save money, including through staff layoffs.
The 30,000 corporate job cuts at Amazon have all come since last October and are part of an attempt by CEO Andy Jassy to get Amazon to operate like the “world’s largest startup.”
In February, Amazon announced it plans to spend $200 billion U.S. on A.I. this year, with the majority of that money going toward infrastructure and data centres.
As for the public backlash, Amazon says it continues to reevaluate how its data centres operate, including working to power them with carbon-free energy sources.
AMZN stock has risen 20% in the last 12 months to trade at $250.02 U.S. per share.
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