Microsoft has vowed to no longer ask local governments to sign nondisclosure agreements (NDAs) regarding its data center projects.

In a blog post shared by the company, Microsoft explained that the latest commitment builds on the previously pledged "Community-First AI Infrastructure Plan," in which Microsoft promised it would "pay our way to ensure our data centers don’t increase your electricity prices [and] minimize our water use and replenish more of your water than we use," alongside local jobs, taxes, and investments in AI training.

That pledge also called for greater transparency - though in this case, regarding power and water usage, not disavowing the use of NDAs.

The major cloud providers and hyperscalers frequently use NDAs for their data center developments, often giving projects "code names" - sometimes relevant to the region, or even a tongue-in-cheek reference to the company assisting with the project (for example, the recent Project Cannoli being developed by Panattoni for Google), or seemingly unrelated titles. Such obfuscation can often frustrate local residents wanting greater transparency around projects coming to their area.

Microsoft stated that it previously used NDAs "during early stages of data center development to help protect sensitive commercial information, address early security considerations, and ensure we can comply with local regulatory and permitting processes."

However, the company is now working to identify any active NDAs in place and terminate them with the local governments.

Microsoft may still, in "certain limited circumstances," share confidential trade secrets or "competitive sensitive information" about its data centers with local governments, and will still try to protect that information from records.

In a post to LinkedIn, Microsoft's corporate vice president and general counsel of infrastructure legal affairs, Rima Alaily, said: "Our neighbors deserve to know when we are coming to their community. They deserve transparency about what we are building and why. This shift is about strengthening public trust, enabling better dialogue, and ensuring that our growth is matched by meaningful engagement."

In January 2026, Microsoft revealed that it had stood up approximately 1GW of data center capacity in the last three months alone. With that, the company also noted a record high quarterly capex of $37.5 billion, of which two-thirds went to "short-lived assets" like GPUs and CPUs, and data center leases accounted for $6.7bn. While that quarter represented sequential growth of capex, the company has said it does not expect this trend to continue "due to a normal variability from cloud infrastructure build-outs."