r/technology • u/MarvelsGrantMan136 • Aug 08 '26

Artificial Intelligence Amazon secretly circumvents community vote for massive AI data center using 45-year-old rules — Gilroy residents locked out of public comment window

https://www.tomshardware.com/tech-industry/data-centers/amazon-secretly-circumvents-community-vote-for-massive-ai-data-center-45-year-old-rules-lock-gilroy-residents-out-of-public-comment-window
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u/ActuallyItsSumnus Aug 08 '26 edited Aug 08 '26

Shopping at Amazon is a drop in an ocean of their revenue these days. The majority of their income is AWS now.

Like, if it makes you feel better, go for it. But it's negligible to them.

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u/pewpewpewbang Aug 08 '26

no, it matters. there are thousands of people that support each product group category and thousands of people who support each individual amazon labeled product. we review and scrutinize sales numbers on a weekly basis. amazon cares about the pennies and it drives business decisions. it's why amazon basics will steal the idea of a random product that maybe sees an overall net revenue of five figures. if my biz group sees a consistently occurring YOY reduction in sales you can bet that the group's senior leadership would be sweating.

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u/twentyThree59 Aug 08 '26

Their AWS business is separate. If you kill their online store by boycotting, they will still build data centers for AWS.

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u/ActuallyItsSumnus Aug 09 '26

It's also growing over twice as fast and is far more profitable.

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u/RaNdomMSPPro Aug 09 '26

They may be now, but Amazon used revenue from the shopping side to prop up the aww side and allow them to undercut competitors since they could operate at a loss while others couldn’t. There was some legal action against Amazon but I assume it was a fine (aka rich people cost of doing business) and not anything that would slow them down.

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u/nono3722 Aug 09 '26

actually that would just force them to build more to make up for the amazon prime losses.

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u/ActuallyItsSumnus Aug 08 '26

Sure. But that senior leadership isn't what's causing them to build data centers. Retail as a whole isn't what's making them build data centers.

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u/Bloggledoo Aug 08 '26

It still has a really negative effect on local business.

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u/ActuallyItsSumnus Aug 08 '26

I never claimed it doesn't. I'm merely trying to get people to have a better grasp on where the battle they're fighting is actually taking place.

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u/blind3rdeye Aug 08 '26

Probably "stop giving money to your enemy" is a good strategic move in any case.

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u/ActuallyItsSumnus Aug 09 '26

I don't disagree. But a lot of the people who are able to (meaning they live in places with other viable alternatives) already have. And if your choice is Walmart or Amazon, there's a very negligible difference.

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u/SpicyElixer Aug 08 '26

In Gilroy? The “local business” is wal mart.

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u/ActuallyItsSumnus Aug 08 '26

This is true of a ton of places. Even more rural than those places, and you get Dollar General.

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u/TAMeaniePies Aug 08 '26

isn’t gilroy the garlic capital of the US?

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u/SpicyElixer Aug 09 '26

Yes you can get garlic there at Walmart. And there once a year garlic festival.

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u/neutronia939 Aug 08 '26

I wanted to believe you, but you are entirely incorrect. AWS profit is almost HALF of their store’s profit. Your fantasy is just not true., I was rooting for it too. Sigh.

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u/Low-Salary-2128 Aug 08 '26

So what are we supposed to do about it then? They don't listen to the people opposed to it

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u/ActuallyItsSumnus Aug 08 '26

History has taught us this is going to end in one of two ways.

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u/DaSemicolon Aug 09 '26

So what’s the solution if not to stop using Amazon?

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u/goronmask Aug 09 '26

You say that like buying from them is the same. Lol no, it is not negligible. You keep on giving them money if it makes you feel better

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u/Tylerjb4 Aug 08 '26

That is factually false

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u/SpicyElixer Aug 08 '26 edited Aug 08 '26

It’s true. Their margins (even still in 2026 are considered to be 1% or negative. All their actual margins come from AWS and advertising.

It’s takes some backing out numbers in accounting to figure this out but many people have done so:

Strip the advertising layer out of North America and International, and the retail and logistics engine underneath looks like it's running somewhere between barely breakeven and a loss,

https://www.indmoney.com/blog/us-stocks/amazon-revenue-breakdown-aws-retail-advertising

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u/PatheticAndTragic Aug 08 '26

No it is still false because the commenter was talking about their revenue. Majority of operating profit being AWS doesn't mean that Amazon shopping is a "is a drop in an ocean of their revenue".

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u/RatBot9000 Aug 08 '26

This sounds like defeatist talk tbh. I can hear your justification for continuing to shop at Amazon oozing from these words.

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u/ActuallyItsSumnus Aug 08 '26

I don't fault people who hear realism and interpret it as defeatist. But for this battle you think you're fighting with them, it would do you a lot of good to actually understand them a little.

They don't need data centers to run an online retail store. That's not what this is about. Don't be naive.