In an enormous boost to an area where much textile and garment employment vanished a generation ago, Amazon intends to invest $10 billion to construct a campus in North Carolina to expand its cloud computing and artificial intelligence infrastructure.
Amazon and Gov. Josh Stein’s office announced Wednesday that their investment in rural Richmond County should support thousands of jobs through data center supply chain providers and construction and create at least 500 jobs.
Stein referred to the investment as one of the biggest in the history of the state.
The landscape of North Carolina is already familiar with data centers, including ones run by Apple.
The roughly 42,000-person Richmond County, which borders South Carolina, might be completely changed by this proposal.
According to the corporation, engineers, network and security experts, and other technical positions will be employed at the Richmond County location.
To help people enter the data center and broadband expansion industries, Amazon said that it would support universities, community colleges, and other worker training programs.
Amazon chief global affairs and legal officer David Zapolsky stated, “This investment will position North Carolina as a hub for cutting-edge technology, create hundreds of high-skilled jobs, and drive significant economic growth.”
“To develop the next generation of talent, we look forward to collaborating with state and local leaders, local suppliers, and educational institutions.”
On Tuesday, Richmond County commissioners gave their approval to an Amazon incentives package.
Depending on job creation and financial investment levels, the corporation might get yearly cash grants for 20 years that are equivalent to a share of the real estate property tax and the property tax for vehicles and equipment at each data center, according to The Richmond Observer.
At the commissioners’ meeting on Tuesday, Richmond County Manager Bryan Land declared,
“This project will truly transform our community in ways that we cannot imagine.”
The news includes significant improvements to our county’s fiber optic infrastructure, Rockingham’s wastewater system, and water system, all of which will be free for Richmond County taxpayers.
The data centers will include servers, storage drives, networking hardware, and other technologies, according to Stein’s office, which referred to the project as an “innovation campus.”
“As we continue to draw in leading tech companies like Amazon, I am happy that North Carolina will remain at the forefront of everything that is ahead because artificial intelligence is changing the way we work and innovate,” Stein said.
The governor attended a public announcement event in Hamlet on Wednesday regarding the investment.
The corporation has supported 24,000 full- and part-time jobs in North Carolina and has invested $12 billion since 2010.
