Amazon Web Services (AWS) has announced plans to invest $35 billion in the state of Virginia by 2040 to expand its operations.
Virginia is home to the company’s US-EAST-1 region, which has suffered from significant outages and other issues in recent years, leading some to cite it as a top concern about Amazon’s ability to handle crises .
AWS has operated 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, which he believes will create “at least” 1,000 new jobs in the region, as he continued to express a clear interest in the industry in his state:
“Virginia will continue to encourage the development of this new generation of data center campuses in multiple regions of the Commonwealth. Offering robust utility infrastructure, lower costs, excellent quality of life and a highly skilled workforce, these areas will benefit from associated economic development and higher tax bases by supporting schools and providing services to the community.”
Reuters (opens in new tab) also reports that the Cloud storage The giant had already invested $35 billion in data centers in Northern Virginia between 2011 and 2020, meaning the continued investments could provide a huge boost to the local economy.
AWS Director of Economic Development Roger Wehner said the company’s investments in the region since 2006 have already increased Commonwealth GDP by nearly $7 billion and created thousands of jobs.
AWS will soon be eligible for a new Mega Data Center Incentive Program pending approval by the Virginia General Assembly. This would include a maximum extension of 15 years of data center sales and use tax exemptions “on qualifying equipment and activation software” and an additional grant worth up to $140 million “for site and infrastructure improvements, staff development and other project-related Measures” include costs.”
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