Amazon Web Services (AWS) has revealed plans to invest $35 billion in the US state of Virginia to expand its operations between now and 2040.
Virginia is home to the company’s US-EAST-1 region, which has suffered significant outages and other issues in recent years, leading some to cite it as a major cause for concern in Amazon’s ability to handle crises.
AWS has been operating in the state since 2006, and later chose Virginia to open a second headquarters in 2018 (which it calls HQ2).
AWS in northern Virginia
Governor of Virginia, Glenn Youngkin, announced (opens in new tab) the plans which he believes will create “at least” 1,000 new jobs in the area as he continued to express a clear interested in the industry within his state:
“Virginia will continue to encourage the development of this new generation of data center campuses across multiple regions of the Commonwealth. These areas offer robust utility infrastructure, lower costs, great livability, and highly educated workforces and will benefit from the associated economic development and increased tax base, assisting 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 that the continued investment could see a huge boost to the local economy.
Director of Economic Development at AWS, Roger Wehner, highlighted that the company’s continued investment in the area since 2006 has already boosted the Commonwealth’s GDP by nearly $7 billion, accounting for thousands of jobs.
In time to come, AWS will be eligible for a new Mega Data Center Incentive Program, should it be approved by the Virginia General Assembly. This would include a 15-year maximum extension of Data Center Sales and Use tax exemptions “on qualifying equipment and enabling software”, and a further grant worth up to $140 million “for site and infrastructure improvements, workforce development, and other project-related costs.”
Via The Register (opens in new tab)
