# Jassy says data centers are essential infrastructure for the U.S

Markdown copy of https://realalpha.app/s/jassy-says-data-centers-are-essential-infrastructure-for-the/ on Real Alpha, the best minutes from long interviews with the people building AI. Cite and link the page, not this copy.

- Speaker: [Andy Jassy](https://realalpha.app/people/andy-jassy/) · Andy Jassy is CEO of Amazon. · Founded and led AWS, then became Amazon's CEO in 2021, steering its $220 billion AI buildout.
- Host: [Ben Horowitz](https://realalpha.app/people/ben-horowitz/) · Co-founder, a16z · Co-founded a16z and Opsware, sold to HP for $1.6 billion; wrote The Hard Thing About Hard Things.
- Host: [Erik Torenberg](https://realalpha.app/people/erik-torenberg/) · General partner, Andreessen Horowitz · Helped build Product Hunt; founded On Deck, Village Global and Turpentine.
- Show: a16z Podcast
- Episode: [Amazon CEO Andy Jassy on the $220 Billion AI Buildout](https://realalpha.app/v/-YMMRQ1qscI/), Oct 23, 2026
- Moment: 16:08 to 20:49 of the episode (5 min), playing on https://realalpha.app/s/jassy-says-data-centers-are-essential-infrastructure-for-the/; the episode from there: https://realalpha.app/v/-YMMRQ1qscI/?t=968

## Quote

> “The golf industry or the almond farming industry consume **way more water** than data centers do.”
> — [Andy Jassy](https://realalpha.app/people/andy-jassy/) at [18:10](https://realalpha.app/v/-YMMRQ1qscI/?t=1090) · a16z Podcast

## Takeaways

1. Jassy says golf courses use about 200 times more water than Amazon's data centers.
2. He says backup generators run about 10 hours a year for maintenance.
3. Amazon has paid about $3 billion in taxes in St. Joseph County, Indiana.

## About this segment

Andy Jassy argues data centers underpin everyday services and U.S. competitiveness. He counters local concerns with figures on water use, backup generators and Amazon's community tax contributions.

From “Amazon CEO Andy Jassy on the $220 Billion AI Buildout”, Oct 23, 2026. [Watch the full episode](https://realalpha.app/v/-YMMRQ1qscI/)

## Transcript

Transcribed by machine (Whisper) from the episode’s audio, so a word may be off here and there.

[16:18](https://realalpha.app/v/-YMMRQ1qscI/?t=978) what you built here and what you built in the other regions? Yeah. Well, I mean, I'll just give you some of the context that i have or at least i believe which is you know if you think about everything we do in the world today well you know stock market banking health care entertainment shopping education business you know ride hailing like everything we do is digitally driven they're all using data centers in a very same way no everybody is i'm anti-me i don't want to use my phone anymore. And they all use data centers. And then that's before AI. And AI is the biggest technology transformation of our time, which I think is saying something since we've lived through the internet and the cloud and mobile. And so, you know, the reality is the type of infrastructure build out we need to support the rapid growth we were just talking about on the AI

[17:16](https://realalpha.app/v/-YMMRQ1qscI/?t=1036) side, there hasn't been anything like it in the world and in this country since maybe when we built out the highways and bridges, you know, in the 1950s. I mean, that's the type of build-out we're going through. And the country, I think the world in general, but I say the U.S. specifically cannot afford not to build data centers, or we will find that another country like China will establish all the leadership and all the norms there. And I don't think any of us are going to like that either domestically or globally. So we have to build data centers. Now, do I think there are ways that we can be doing it better, all of us as an industry than we have? Of course, you know, I think it's happening quickly and I think everybody's learning together, but there are a number of what I would consider somewhere between myths and mistruths right now being propagated

[18:07](https://realalpha.app/v/-YMMRQ1qscI/?t=1087) because it's one of those issues where everybody, you have an easy villain. And politically and sometimes opportunists like to kind of find that villain to point at. But, you know, I'll give you examples. The golf industry or the almond farming industry consume way more water than data centers do. Just as a data point, our data centers, like golf courses consume 200 times more water than all our data centers.

[18:34](https://realalpha.app/v/-YMMRQ1qscI/?t=1114) And they consume more in two days than we do in a year in our data center. So there's just a lot of, like, that's a good example. Or you can talk about, you know, people talk about pollution. What happens is when you register new sites and you have backup generators, you have to register and show the amount if you ran all of those generators full time at full capacity. But, of course, it never happens.

[18:57](https://realalpha.app/v/-YMMRQ1qscI/?t=1137) You only run backup generators 0.1 of 1% of the year, like 10 hours a year for maintenance. So like, you know, or you talk about the energy rates, you know, if you look in the different geographies in which we have a big data center presence, some of the energy rates have gone up, some of the energy rates have gone down. But the real issue is that as a country, we have not invested in the infrastructure of our grids the way we've needed to, like there's going to be meaningful growth.

[19:24](https://realalpha.app/v/-YMMRQ1qscI/?t=1164) And so something was going to push it over to investment, and it just turns out that AI, because it's growing so rapidly and so significantly, is the thing to push it over. But building it out, of course, what you're going to find is once you actually get that capacity in most of the geographies, they're going to end up, you know, the rates will flatline or go down as they have in Indiana or in Georgia or Mississippi.

[19:48](https://realalpha.app/v/-YMMRQ1qscI/?t=1188) And so, you know, there are things that we can do that are better. I mean, the other thing people forget about is in these geographies, the big data center providers are paying a lot of tax. If you look in St. Joseph County in Indiana, we've paid about $3 billion of tax. The communities get that money and they get to spend it on things that really matter for those communities. So the communities get something out of it, too.

[20:13](https://realalpha.app/v/-YMMRQ1qscI/?t=1213) We've built programs like Built Together that we, you know, we just committed to another billion dollars in the communities in which we have data center presences over the next five years. And so, you know, I think you have to we have to keep working on it with the communities. It has to be a public and private partnership. But the build-out is so important to the future of the country. Like, imagine if we hadn't built out highways and bridges and what the economic prosperity and the capabilities of the country would be.

[20:38](https://realalpha.app/v/-YMMRQ1qscI/?t=1238) And we have to kind of keep it in perspective,