>
Amazon Web Services (AWS) has unveiled plans to invest $35 billion in the US state of Virginia to expand its business between now and 2040.
Virginia is home to the company’s US-EAST-1 region, which has experienced significant power outages and other issues in recent years, leading some to cite this as a major concern about Amazon’s ability to handle crises. to go.
AWS has been operating in the state since 2006 and later chose Virginia to open a second headquarters (which it calls HQ2) in 2018.
AWS in northern Virginia
Virginia Governor Glenn Youngkin, announced (opens in new tab) the plans he says will create “at least” 1,000 new jobs in the area, as he expressed a clear interest in the industry in his state:
“Virginia will continue to drive the development of this new generation of data center campuses in multiple Commonwealth regions. These areas offer robust utility infrastructure, lower costs, high quality of life and a highly skilled workforce and will benefit from associated economic development and a larger tax base, helping the schools and providing services to the community.”
Reuters (opens in new tab) also reports that the cloud storage giant had already invested $35 billion in Northern Virginia data centers between 2011 and 2020, meaning the continued investment could provide a huge boost to the local economy.
AWS Director of Economic Development, Roger Wehner, stressed that the company’s continued investments in the area since 2006 have already increased Commonwealth GDP by nearly $7 billion, creating thousands of jobs.
In the near future, AWS will be eligible for a new Mega Data Center Incentive Program if approved by the Virginia General Assembly. This includes a maximum 15-year extension of tax exemptions for data center sales and use “on qualifying equipment and supporting software,” and a further grant worth up to $140 million “for site and infrastructure improvements, development of personnel and other project-related costs.”
Through The register (opens in new tab)