Microsoft goes quiet after church groups ask for 1% of data center costs

Microsoft has spent all year telling communities that when it brings a new data center into their area, it is committed to being a “good neighbor." It will pay local property taxes that support local hospitals, schools, parks, and libraries, and it will invest in “vital services the community cares about,” the company promised. And it has sent liaisons into those communities to learn what those needs are.

But ask those liaisons how much the company is willing to invest, and the answers can be hard to come by.

At community meetings, Microsoft representatives have seemed unprepared to answer questions that go beyond the company's “good neighbor” campaign materials, Ars has learned. The company has acknowledged in public-facing documents that simply matching its employees’ charitable donations—which totaled $229 million across 29,000 nonprofits in 2024—isn't enough. But it has been vague about what more substantial local investments might look like. And to critics, Microsoft’s local investments seem especially small compared with the estimated hundreds of millions in state-level tax breaks that data center developers get in 38 states—exemptions that often last more than a decade.

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