One company, two names on the paperAmazon

The actual contract is public because Talen filed it: Exhibit 10.24 to Talen’s S-1, a Purchase Agreement for the “Data Center Campus, Berwick, PA.” The buyer is Amazon Data Services, Inc., a Delaware corporation. Price: $650,000,000—of which only $90,000,000 is allocated to the real property. The agreement carries a Rezoning Requirement Escrow with releases tied to zoning approvals meeting a “540 MW Requirement” and a “960 MW Requirement”—the expansion was pre-wired into the purchase, and a Talen employee-bonus exhibit keys staff payouts to those same escrow releases. Buyer notices route to Amazon.com, Inc. The deal closed March 1, 2024.

The same day the campus closed, Susquehanna Nuclear, LLC—Talen’s plant subsidiary—“entered the Amazon Power Purchase Agreement and the Amazon Environmental Attribute Purchase Agreement with Amazon Energy LLC.” That sentence, in an employee-bonus exhibit, is the only public document naming the PPA counterparty. Amazon Energy LLC holds federal market-based-rate authority under FERC Docket ER15-1905—a docket that filed for years under the name AZ721 LLC. The April 2023 Federal Register notice carries both names on one filing; by May 2024 the applicant is simply Amazon Energy LLC. Its state of formation, officers, and address remain unopened—a stated gap, and the map’s one labeled inference.

In June 2024, PJM Interconnection, Susquehanna Nuclear, and PPL Electric asked FERC to raise the plant’s co-located data-center load from 300 MW to 480 MW. On November 1, 2024, FERC rejected the amended agreement (189 FERC ¶ 61,078). Chairman Willie Phillips dissented—“a step backward for both electric reliability and national security”; Commissioner Mark Christie concurred “without prejudice.” The order names Amazon exactly once, in the intervener list. The company whose load the fight was about is not a party on FERC’s paper. Seven months later came the workaround—a new PPA for 1,920 MW through 2042, converting to front-of-the-meter in Spring 2026—which Talen’s business update states “does not require FERC approval.” The 8-K names no Amazon legal entity at all.

In Indiana, the regulatory seat is held by the same entity that took title in Pennsylvania: Amazon Data Services, Inc. intervened and signed the settlement in IURC Cause 46097—the order requiring new large-load customers to make long-term financial commitments—while its witness testified from Amazon Web Services, Inc.: both entities in one state order. The campus itself, Project Rainier, is described in Amazon’s earnings exhibit as a collaboration with Anthropic to build “the world’s largest AI compute cluster”—with no location given in any Amazon filing; Amazon’s website places it in St. Joseph County. In Mississippi, the legislature passed a $10 billion statutory deal (“Project Atlas”) in a two-day special session—the statute never names the company; the state development agency’s release does: Amazon Web Services, Inc. Terms on paper—at least 1,000 jobs at 125 percent of the state average wage, clawback, a $260 million bond cap, $44 million cash, fee-in-lieu up to 30 years.

Amazon’s PAC (FEC committee C00360354, filer name “Amazon.com Services LLC Separate Segregated Fund”) runs a flat institutional book—all four congressional campaign committees at $30,000 per cycle, both parties, zero nonfederal disbursements. The signature money is personal. David Zapolsky, Amazon’s Chief Global Affairs & Legal Officer as filed, gave $25,000 to the DGA Victory Fund—the Democratic Governors Association’s Pennsylvania committee—on June 17, 2025: eight days after the $20 billion Pennsylvania announcement with Gov. Josh Shapiro and six days after the 1,920 MW PPA. Then $15,000 more, and $2,500 directly to Shapiro for Pennsylvania, both in the governor’s 2026 reelection year—$42,500 in all, where Shapiro’s committee shows zero Amazon money before 2026. Shannon Kellogg, the AWS public-policy chief, wrote paired October 2025 checks to Rep. Michael Guest (MS-03, Madison County) and Banks for Senate (Indiana). The PAC funds Guest on a rising curve—$4,500 across the deal years—while giving nothing to the members whose districts hold New Carlisle or the Susquehanna campus. The filings record the donations; they do not record why.

The absences are findings. Amazon.com’s SEC full text—zero hits for “Susquehanna,” “Talen,” and “New Carlisle”; “Rainier” appears only in earnings exhibits, never with a location. FERC appears in zero of Amazon’s 104 lobbying filings for 2025—a $17.78 million in-house program under the registrant name “AMAZON.COM SERVICES LLC,” with the only energy-coded work outsourced to Mindset Advocacy—$200,000 for “issues related to data center energy production.” Indiana’s state campaign-finance database contains no Amazon money at all—every “Amazon” row is a merchandise refund. Chief executive Andy Jassy’s personal giving touches no theater. Stated gaps, not papered over—the 2025 PPA’s Amazon signer entity, Amazon Energy LLC’s formation record, the Luzerne County deed, the St. Joseph County resolutions, the Mississippi fee-in-lieu signer, and Mississippi’s campaign-finance portal (blocked to automated search—a gap, not a verified absence).