Amazon to invest $10 billion into AI data centers in North Carolina
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A worker assembles a box at an Amazon fulfillment center in Raleigh. Photo: Rachel Jessen/Bloomberg via Getty Images
E-commerce giant Amazon will invest $10 billion in building data centers in Richmond County, about 100 miles southwest of Raleigh.
Why it matters: Amazon's data centers, which will be used to power the company's artificial intelligence and cloud computing work, are one of the largest financial investments in the state's history and could also create 500 new jobs once they open.
- Richmond County, whose county seat is Rockingham, is among the most economically distressed counties in the state, according to the N.C. Department of Commerce.
Driving the news: Amazon announced the deal on Wednesday, saying it will open multiple data centers in the state.
- Amazon declined to comment on how many data centers there will be "for security reasons."
Zoom in: A release from Gov. Josh Stein's office said the data centers would be built at the Energy Way Industrial Park, which has energy connections to both Duke Energy and Pee Dee Electric as well as a Duke Energy-owned natural gas plant.
- Duke Energy, specifically, has been working with Richmond County on improving the site for years, completing a site readiness program there in 2019.
- It also receives wastewater service from the city of Rockingham, an important component as data centers require a significant amount of water.
Richmond County approved incentives for the project — cash grants up to 50% of annual property taxes and 65% of personal property taxes for 20 years — on Tuesday night, according to the Richmond Observer.
- No state incentives have been approved for the project yet.
- The large-scale construction will likely employ thousands of workers. But once the facility is in operation, Amazon said, it will employ jobs ranging from data center engineers, network specialists, security and engineering operations.
- The company also said it plans to partner with community colleges in the state to create training programs for jobs in data center operations.
The big picture: Investment in data centers has exploded in recent years, due to the energy needs of AI computing.
- The Amazon investment would be the largest data center project to come to North Carolina since that trend took off, but it likely will not be the last.
The other side: Despite the job-creation promises of data centers, there's rising bipartisan opposition to their construction nationwide stemming from aesthetics and noise to housing costs and national security, Axios' Asher Price and Mimi Montgomery reported last year.
Between the lines: Microsoft has also bought a large amount of land in Person County for what is presumed to be a data center project. The company has yet to announce its plans for the land.
- However, since that deal, Microsoft has also scaled back some of its data center plans, including pulling back on three data center campuses in Ohio.