Amazon announces massive NC data center

Sound familiar? The AP reported yesterday:

Amazon plans to invest $10 billion toward building a campus in North Carolina to expand its cloud computing and artificial intelligence infrastructure.

That’s billion, with a “b.” An eleven-figure investment for the state.

And oddly enough, the state’s Democratic governor is in favor of the project. The AP quotes the company and the Gov. on the investment, with the delightful dateline of Hamlet, NC:

Amazon said Wednesday that its investment in rural Richmond County should create at least 500 jobs and support thousands more through construction and data center supply chain providers, according to statements from the company and Gov. Josh Stein’s office. Stein called the investment one of the largest in state history.

Huh. How about that. Gov. Stein’s press release can be read here. A Stein quote:

Artificial intelligence is changing the way we work and innovate, and I am pleased that North Carolina will stay at the forefront of all that’s ahead as we continue to attract top technology companies like Amazon.

It must be nice. We wouldn’t know, here in Minnesota.

The Minnesota Star Tribune‘s Walker Orenstein noticed this development, posting on Twitter (X):

Two weeks after suspending a massive project in Minnesota, Amazon has announced a $10 billion data center campus for AI in North Carolina.

You will recall that Amazon abandoned a similar project for Minnesota after the state moved to repeal a tax exemption for electricity purchases and regulatory hassles getting permits to install backup diesel electric generators.

When I discuss the failed Amazon project, the most common reaction I get, from both the left and the right, is “good riddance.” Sample reactions:

• Why should they get a tax break and not us?
• Why do they get to skip permitting red tape?
• Data centers don’t create jobs.
• Data centers use lots of water.
• Data centers use lots of electricity.
• <Some personal beef with Amazon or Jeff Bezos.>
• <Dislike of large corporations in general.>

Lots of the stuff above could be worked out in the project details to protect consumers-farmers-taxpayers-neighbors, etc. But Minnesota is never going to get the chance.

Other than a few mining companies (nonstarters), I don’t see a lot of eleven-figure investments being proposed here. We are determined to ensure that the perfect always defeats the good. A cold Mississippi.