This article first appeared on the Magnolia Tribune.
Campuses for the $10 billion project will be located at two sites in Madison County, one being the Megasite pictured. (Photo from Entergy)
- AWS will generate a ripple effect across the state economy, accelerating productivity gains, empowering digital transformation, upskilling the workforce, and creating other employment opportunities.
An investment of $1,000 in Amazon (Nasdaq: AMZN) stock 20 years ago would be worth $90,500 today, an annualized return of 24 percent. (Durn.) Not bad for a bookseller that expanded into selling other products online, then shifted into providing cloud services, and now also operates grocery stores, health clinics, and an online pharmacy.
In January, Amazon committed to a $10 billion investment over the next 10 years via Amazon Web Services (AWS) to build data center campuses in Madison County. The project represents the greatest singular investment in Mississippi. Amazon ranks second on the Fortune 500 list, only behind Wal-Mart (NYSE: WMT). AWS is its fastest-growing, most profitable segment.
“When AWS launched in 2006, we embarked on a mission to democratize technology, AWS former CEO Adam Selipsky wrote in AWS’s 2023 Economic Impact Study. “We envisioned a world where any person with a computer, an internet connection, and an idea could access the same advanced technology as the world’s largest enterprises or most well-funded research institutes.
“This new way of thinking gave birth to a never-before-seen technology we all now know as ‘cloud computing.’ Today, AWS is the world’s most comprehensive and broadly adopted cloud, offering more than 240 fully featured services from our global network of data centers. Our infrastructure delivers the most reliable, secure, and scalable computing technology to millions of customers, 24 hours a day.”
Since 2011, AWS has invested more than $108 billion in its infrastructure across the U.S. to support customers of all kinds, and across all industries, in their digital transformation, said Roger Wehner, AWS director of economic development.
“Building on this, we’re excited to expand our operations into Mississippi through this planned $10 billion investment, which will tap into the burgeoning tech sector across the state to create new, well-paying jobs and boost the state’s Gross Domestic Product each year. We look forward to delivering new workforce development opportunities and educational programs that support the next generation of talent across the Magnolia State.”
AWS’s total investment in the U.S. has contributed nearly $38 billion in gross domestic product (GDP) to the economy, said Selipsky, and “countless additional economic benefits that have come from empowering the fastest-growing startups, the largest enterprises, small and medium-sized businesses, government agencies, and nonprofits to innovate.
“At AWS, we take a long-term view—we’re building a business that will outlast us all.”
Amazon’s commitment includes the creation of at least 1,000 jobs paying an annual average wage of $80,000. It will generate a ripple effect across the state economy, accelerating productivity gains, empowering digital transformation, upskilling the workforce, and creating other employment opportunities.
Madison County (population: 108,248) has experienced 14.6 percent growth in the last decade. The megasite regional draw (45-minute drive time) is 592,294.
First up: construction. The facilities will take up 1,713 acres of land in two separate areas of Madison County. One site: the remaining 927 acres at the Madison County Mega Site in the center of Madison County, located off Highway 22 and Nissan Parkway in Canton. Clark Beverage Company is also being built at the megasite. The project will include approximately 16 buildings between 200,000 to 300,000 square feet of space. Amazon’s distribution center is anchored there.
The second: an additional 786 acres in Ridgeland on the Costas property, located along the southern tip of Madison County near Tougaloo College, on the corner of Highland Colony Parkway and West County Line Road.
The sites are estimated for completion by 2027.
AWS, which isn’t being financially assisted by the state on the construction phase, will purchase construction labor, materials and services from U.S. supply chains to support the new data centers. At least 6,000 construction workers will be needed, maybe more than double that number, said Governor Tate Reeves.
From 2011-2022, AWS local spending on data center construction in the U.S. totaled $18.3 billion.
Jobs needed include skilled trades, such as electricians, fiber-optic technicians, and heating, ventilation and air conditioning (HVAC) technicians.
From 2011-2022, AWS in the U.S., according to the 2023 report:
- Invested $92.04 billion in the construction of its cloud computing infrastructure,
- Provided $16.24 billion in estimated labor income supported at businesses by data center construction,
- Created 19,900 data center construction jobs, and
- Generated $17.01 billion in local spending on data center operations.
The economic impact of AWS investment in the U.S. for the same time period includes:
- Virginia: $63.9 billion, representing 16,600 jobs,
- Oregon: $22.9 billion, supporting 5,700 jobs,
- Ohio: $6.3 billion, establishing 3,550 jobs, and
- California: $4.2 billion, supporting 1,500 jobs.
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NOTE: Part 4 of this series will continue Sunday, July 28, with more detail on the jobs AWS will bring to Mississippi.
This article first appeared on the Magnolia Tribune and is republished here under a Creative Commons license.
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