Google Stops Requiring NDAs for Local Officials on Data Centers: What Is Confirmed

Google has reportedly stopped requiring local officials to sign nondisclosure agreements (NDAs) when it plans data centers, according to a briefing from The Information published October 21, 2026. If accurate, Google joins Microsoft and Amazon, which had already moved away from the practice, in dropping a tactic that critics say hides the terms of AI infrastructure deals from the communities that host them.

We could not open the full Information article and found no Google statement announcing the change, so treat it as a single-outlet report until Google or local officials confirm. This post covers what is known, the pressure that preceded it, and what a policy change would and would not do. Source: The Information briefing. For Amazon's version of the story, see our post on Amazon dropping data center NDAs.

TL;DR: reported and confirmed

What is the dispute about?

Data center developers routinely ask local and state officials to sign NDAs during early negotiations. NPR's August reporting found the practice widespread: a University of Mary Washington study found NDAs in at least 25 of 31 data center projects it surveyed in Virginia, and records requests in Louisiana turned up at least 54 NDAs signed by elected officials about various projects since early 2024.

NPR's Louisiana example is vivid. In Boyce, a town of about 1,000, negotiations for a 300-acre site were shielded by NDAs under code names "Project Lightning" and "Project Pixel." The project, later named Delta Forge 1, is a $3.6 billion campus expected to draw 300 megawatts in its first phase, roughly enough for 200,000 homes on a summer day according to the EIA figure NPR cited. At least five state senators, the parish assessor and every member of the state-created board that negotiated the deal signed NDAs, and residents say they learned of the details after the approval. At a June town hall, an environmental study's findings were withheld from the public and the crowd shouted "They signed an NDA!"

The case for NDAs, and its limits

Defenders say NDAs are normal in economic development. Louisiana's economic development secretary told NPR they are "fundamental" and allow officials to be "more forthcoming" with companies. The CEO of Applied Digital, Wes Cummins, said the main reason his company uses them is securities law, since a new campus can count as material non-public information for a listed firm, and added: "It just feels sneaky to people."

Critics point out that NDAs also give developers leverage when they shop a project between counties. NPR quoted a transparency expert saying information is power. And some places do without: West Feliciana Parish, Louisiana, hosting a $10 billion data center, chose not to use NDAs and posted its agreements on the parish website, its president said "you can do these projects without keeping the people in the dark."

How pressure built up

• March 2026: Microsoft announced it would stop using NDAs with local governments, according to a House Judiciary Democrats letter.
• August 2026: NPR's reporting puts NDAs in the national spotlight, with state bills and Pennsylvania's executive ban.
• September 29, 2026: Rep. Jamie Raskin, the House Judiciary ranking member, writes to Alphabet's CEO, with similar letters to Amazon, Meta and Oracle, asking for the NDAs, projected electricity and water use, and whether agreements were used to block public records requests, per the committee's release.
• October 2026: Amazon says it has stopped requiring officials to sign NDAs, and local bodies such as Lane County, Oregon move toward bans.
• October 21, 2026: The Information reports Google's change.

For the wider backlash, see our coverage of New York's moratorium debate, San Francisco's data center moratorium and the Senate investigation into hyperscalers misleading the public on costs.

What dropping NDAs does and does not do

It could help with:

• Letting officials talk to constituents about a proposed project before approvals.
• Making tax incentives, land deals and utility commitments easier to scrutinize.
• Removing the "sneaky" perception that NPR's sources described.

It does not by itself:

• Require disclosure of power and water demand, which Raskin's letters ask about and which communities repeatedly raise.
• Stop projects from using code names or confidentiality through other channels such as development agreements or site-selection consultants.
• Replace public-records laws, hearings and zoning review.

We did not see what Google proposes in place of NDAs, or whether the change applies to state-level officials, utilities and economic development agencies, not just local officials. Those details determine how much changes in practice.

Why this is an AI story

AI demand is driving the build-out of data centers at a scale that strains local power grids and water supplies, and the social license to build is now a limiting factor. Communities are weighing the promised jobs against rising bills and environmental effects, as in Kansas households facing data center costs, Amazon's Thane project in India and the president's call for data centers to bring their own power. Transparency commitments are cheap for companies relative to the cost of a stalled project, which may explain the pace of the policy shift.

What residents and local officials can do now

Whether or not a company has dropped NDAs, communities can ask for the information that matters before a vote.

1. Ask whether any NDA exists. Officials can disclose that they have signed one, even if they cannot share its contents. Public-records requests for the agreements themselves are how NPR's partners found 54 of them in Louisiana.
2. Request the numbers up front. Projected electricity demand in megawatts, annual water use, cooling method, noise, backup generation and the number of permanent jobs are the questions Raskin's letters ask the companies to answer.
3. Ask who pays for grid upgrades. Whether new transmission and generation costs land on ratepayers or on the company is the issue behind many local fights, including those we covered in Kansas.
4. Look at incentives and agreements together. Tax breaks, land sales and utility contracts should be reviewed as a package, as West Feliciana Parish did by posting its fully executed deal online.
5. Use the town hall. Several of the stories above turned on a single meeting where residents learned what had been negotiated. Ask for the study findings to be published, not just summarized.

None of this requires a company to change its policy, which is partly why the shift matters: the default is moving from secrecy toward at least conditional openness.

Capitol columns, illustrating congressional and state pressure over data center NDAs and local transparency

Questions this raises for the AI industry

Will transparency slow the build-out? Possibly in places where opposition is strong, since open debate gives opponents time to organize. But companies appear to be betting that visible, negotiated agreements are less risky than a project halted late by backlash. The same logic drives the community benefit pledges we have tracked in other states.

Do NDAs matter if the project is eventually public? The timing is the point. NPR's reporting suggests the harm residents describe came from decisions being made, incentives being granted and sites being prepared before they could weigh in. Disclosure after approval is not the same as disclosure before it.

What about securities law? The Applied Digital CEO's explanation, that a new campus can be material non-public information for a listed company, is a real constraint for public companies. Alphabet, Microsoft and Amazon are also listed, so they face similar rules, which suggests those rules can be managed without requiring local officials to sign broad NDAs. That inference is ours; companies have not laid out their legal reasoning in what we could read.

What to watch

1. A Google statement or policy page describing the change and its scope.
2. Whether Meta and Oracle, which also received Raskin's letters, follow.
3. Whether state bans pass, and whether companies keep using NDAs in jurisdictions where they remain legal.
4. Whether disclosure of power and water figures becomes the next demand.

Related reading

• Amazon drops data center NDAs
• New York data center moratorium explained
• San Francisco data center moratorium
• Senate investigation into hyperscaler cost claims
• Kansas data center household costs
• Amazon Thane data center protests
• Official: The Information report, NPR on data center NDAs and the House Judiciary Democrats release

Details are accurate as of October 22, 2026 and rely on press reports; Google has not published a statement that we could find.