Amazon announced plans to invest $10 billion in Missouri to construct a new, state-of-the-art data center campus in Montgomery County. The project is expected to create over 400 full-time data center jobs, thousands of construction jobs, and generate significant economic activity through construction, infrastructure investment, and long-term operational growth. Montgomery County estimates this investment will generate hundreds of millions of dollars in new property tax revenue over the next 25 years.

Economic and Community Impact

Alongside its investment, Amazon is committing over $7 million in community contributions. These contributions include $3 million to support emergency dispatch services in Montgomery County, over $1 million for a new community gathering space at the County Fairgrounds, and an additional $3 million in community programs. As part of these contributions, Amazon is launching a $150,000 Community Fund to provide grants for Montgomery County community projects.

Infrastructure and Utility Partnerships

Amazon has worked with the local electric utility, Ameren Missouri, and will pay for 100% of the costs to provide electric service to the new data center campus. This includes all costs associated with connecting to the energy grid, with no incentives or discounts on electric rates. The company is also collaborating with agricultural technology company Arable Labs to implement technology aimed at helping Missouri farmers improve irrigation efficiency. The project is expected to reduce water use by 100 million gallons of water.

Stakeholder Reactions

Existing Presence and Future Outlook

This investment builds on Amazon's longstanding presence in Missouri as an employer of over 10,000 Missourians through a variety of facilities across the state. Amazon's Missouri footprint includes fulfillment and sortation centers, delivery stations, Rural Super Rural delivery stations, and Whole Foods Market locations. The $10 billion investment further strengthens Missouri's growing role in the digital economy and supports increasing global demand for secure, reliable, and scalable cloud computing infrastructure.

Amazon.com Inc. CEO Andy Jassy reportedly raised security concerns about Anthropic's Fable 5 model, prompting a U.S. export control ban on its Mythos-class AI models and a subsequent global shutdown. The Wall Street Journal reported Saturday that Jassy informed Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent that Amazon researchers used the Fable 5 model to obtain information usable in cyberattacks. This warning led the government to direct Anthropic to bar foreign nationals from the systems on national security grounds, resulting in the company disabling access to Fable 5 and Mythos 5 on Friday.

Security concerns and regulatory action

The Information and Reuters similarly reported the concerns, attributing them to Amazon, a major Anthropic investor. David Sacks, former White House AI and Crypto Czar who currently co-chairs the President’s Council of Advisors on Science and Technology, stated on X that a “highly credible trusted partner” of both Anthropic and the U.S. government found a jailbreak while testing Fable. Sacks wrote that the administration asked Dario Amodei, Anthropic's CEO, to fix the jailbreak or de-deploy the model, but Amodei refused.

Anthropic's response and capabilities

In a blog post, Anthropic said the capabilities apparently causing government concern are already available in other publicly accessible AI models. The company has not yet responded to requests for comment regarding the specific allegations or the shutdown.

Strategic partnership and investments

The security incident occurs amid a deepening financial relationship between the two companies. In April, Anthropic committed to spending over $100 billion on Amazon Web Services infrastructure, including Trainium chip capacity. Amazon added $5 billion in fresh investment in the startup, building on its earlier $8 billion stake. Amazon became a major shareholder in the Dario Amodei-led AI startup in September 2023.

Anthropic has faced increased scrutiny recently, with the Pentagon designating its Claude models a supply chain risk earlier this year. The company is also expected to go public later this year.