Dive Brief:

• Amazon plans to invest $3.5 billion to establish new data centers in New Albany, Ohio, according to a press release shared with Construction Dive.
• The new data centers will support computer servers, networking equipment and the AWS technology, while the increased tax revenue from the expansion will support schools, essential services and infrastructure investments such as local parks and roads, according to the release.
• The investment in New Albany marks the initial part of Amazon’s $7.8 billion commitment to expand data centers in the state, which was first announced by Ohio Gov. Mike DeWine and Lt. Gov. Jon Husted in June.

Dive Insight:

Amazon is not the only tech giant to identify New Albany as an up-and-coming data center hub.

Google also announced in August a $1.7 billion investment into its three Ohio data center campuses, one of which is in New Albany. The tech company selected the site due to its ample land, water supply, low natural disaster risk and aggressive tax incentives.

Major data center operators and hyperscalers, like Amazon and Google, continue to show interest in the Columbus market, including nearby cities like New Albany, Hilliard, Dublin and Delaware, Ohio, according to a data center market report from Dallas-based real estate services firm CBRE. 

Those markets attract data center players because they sit between major developed data center hubs, including Northern Virginia, Atlanta and Chicago. 

Additionally, over 50% of the U.S. population lives within 750 miles of Columbus, which is advantageous for clients wanting to build and develop near end users, according to the CBRE report.

Amazon’s data center projects in Central Ohio represent the second-largest private sector corporate investment in Ohio’s history, behind only Intel’s $20 billion investment in January 2022 to build its semiconductor facility.