Amazon.com, Inc. — 2026 Annual Meeting, May 20, 2026 — Shareholders may vote now at www.ProxyVote.com (you will need your control number or an account number).
National Legal and Policy Center (NLPC) has prepared an exempt solicitation report urging shareholders of Amazon.com, Inc. to vote FOR Item 6 on the 2026 proxy ballot.
Download the Full ReportThe proposal requests that Amazon’s Board of Directors publish a report by March 31, 2027 disclosing (1) the incremental capital and operating costs incurred to implement The Climate Pledge since fiscal year 2019, and (2) the Board’s efforts to reassess that Pledge given Amazon’s dramatically changed energy and infrastructure requirements. Amazon is a different company than the one that made this commitment. Shareholders deserve to know what it costs.
When Amazon co-founded The Climate Pledge in September 2019 — committing to net-zero carbon emissions by 2040¹ — its cash capital expenditures stood at $12.7 billion.² By 2026, management expects to spend approximately $200 billion in a single year, driven overwhelmingly by AI infrastructure.³ ⁴ In that same period, Amazon has become the world’s largest corporate purchaser of renewable energy, having supported more than 600 wind and solar projects worldwide.⁵ Full-year 2025 revenue was $716.9 billion; net income was $77.7 billion, or $7.17 per diluted share; and Amazon Web Services alone generated $45.6 billion in operating income.³ These are impressive numbers. They are also numbers generated by a business whose energy demands now rival those of small countries — and whose climate commitments were designed for a company a fraction of this size. Amazon’s shareholders have never been told what the gap between those two realities costs them.
The costs are real and rising. The U.S. Department of Energy documented in December 2024 that data center electricity demand had tripled over the prior decade and could double or triple again by 2028.⁶ In July 2025, DOE warned that retirements plus projected load growth could increase the risk of power outages by 100 times by 2030, and that approximately 100 gigawatts of new peak-hour supply could be required nationally — with roughly 50 gigawatts attributable directly to data-center growth.⁷
Renewable energy interconnection costs have surged sharply, withdrawal rates for renewable projects run as high as 80%, and storage and transmission costs are frequently socialized rather than assigned to the companies whose commitments drove them. Amazon bears some portion of those costs. Shareholders do not know how much.
Regulators and law enforcement have taken notice. In September 2025, Montana Attorney General Austin Knudsen, joined by fifteen other state attorneys general, launched a formal investigation into Big Tech’s renewable-energy claims — pressing Amazon specifically on whether its “100% renewable” branding reflects physical reality.⁸
In January 2026, the Trump administration unveiled a plan requiring large data-center operators to finance new dispatchable generation.⁹ And on March 4, 2026, Amazon itself signed the Trump administration’s Ratepayer Protection Pledge at the White House, committing to cover the full cost of power generation and grid infrastructure for its data centers — an acknowledgment that these costs exist and must be accounted for.¹⁰ Amazon has now made that acknowledgment to the federal government. It has not made it to shareholders.
Amazon’s Board calls this Proposal “impractical” and “not meaningful to shareholders.”¹¹ A company that spent $131.8 billion on capital expenditures in 2025 and is guiding to $200 billion in 2026 does not lack the data or the capacity to produce this report. It lacks the will.
NLPC previously reached a productive agreement with Apple on a virtually identical proposal — Apple engaged, and Amazon should too.¹² Shareholders should not wait. The annual meeting is May 20, 2026, but you may cast your vote any time before the meeting. NLPC urges you to vote FOR Item 6.
Shareholders may vote now at www.ProxyVote.com (you will need your control number or an account number).
Download the Full ReportEndnotes
- “The Climate Pledge,” Amazon.com, Inc. See https://www.aboutamazon.com/planet/climate-pledge
- Amazon.com, Inc. Annual Report (Form 10-K), February 3, 2020. See https://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/1018724/000101872420000004/amzn-20191231x10k.htm
- “Amazon.com Announces Fourth Quarter Results,” Amazon.com, Inc., February 5, 2026. See https://ir.aboutamazon.com/news-release/news-release-details/2026/Amazon-com-Announces-Fourth-Quarter-Results/
- Greg Bensinger; Deborah Mary Sophia. “Amazon sees 50% boost to capital spending this year as it pushes AI buildout,” Reuters, February 5, 2026. See https://www.reuters.com/business/retail-consumer/amazon-projects-200-billion-capital-spending-this-year-2026-02-05/
- “Amazon is the largest corporate purchaser of renewable energy globally for the fifth year in a row,” Amazon.com, Inc., January 16, 2025. See https://www.aboutamazon.com/news/sustainability/amazon-renewable-energy-solar-wind-nuclear-climate-change
- “DOE Releases New Report Evaluating Increase in Electricity Demand from Data Centers,” U.S. Department of Energy, December 20, 2024. See https://www.energy.gov/articles/doe-releases-new-report-evaluating-increase-electricity-demand-data-centers
- “Evaluating the Reliability and Security of the United States Electric Grid,” U.S. Department of Energy, July 7, 2025. See https://www.energy.gov/sites/default/files/2025-07/DOE%20Final%20EO%20Report%20%28FINAL%20JULY%207%29.pdf
- “Attorney General Knudsen launches investigation into big tech companies,” Montana Department of Justice, September 24, 2025. See https://dojmt.gov/attorney-general-knudsen-launches-investigation-into-big-tech-companies/
- “FACT SHEET: Trump Administration Outlines Plan To Build Big Power Plants Again,” U.S. Department of Energy, January 16, 2026. See https://www.energy.gov/articles/fact-sheet-trump-administration-outlines-plan-build-big-power-plants-again
- “FACT SHEET: President Donald J. Trump Advances Energy Affordability with the Ratepayer Protection Pledge,” The White House, March 4, 2026. See https://www.whitehouse.gov/fact-sheets/2026/03/fact-sheet-president-donald-j-trump-advances-energy-affordability-with-the-ratepayer-protection-pledge/
- Notice of 2026 Annual Meeting of Shareholders & Proxy Statement, Amazon.com, Inc., April 9, 2026 (Page 40). See https://s2.q4cdn.com/299287126/files/doc_financials/2026/ar/Amazon-2026-Proxy-Statement.pdf
- Luke Perlot. “NLPC Reaches Agreement with Apple on Climate Risk,” National Legal and Policy Center, January 16, 2026. See https://nlpc.org/corporate-integrity-project/nlpc-reaches-agreement-with-apple-on-climate-risk/
(Post references PX14A6G Notice of exempt solicitation)
