Expert: Data center announcement could spur more technology development in Mississippi

Amazon Web Services will occupy two Madison County locations for the historic buildout for hyperscale development centers, and a leader in the industry said Mississippi is on the right path for economic development.

Mississippi lawmakers met Thursday for a special session to potentially finalize $294 million in financial incentives for the Amazon Web Services $10 billion project in Canton and Madison County.

During a press conference at the Walter Sillers Building on Wednesday morning, Gov. Tate Reeves called for the session and said the project represents the single largest corporate capital investment in state history. Amazon Web Services will build two sites, one a 927-acre site and the other a 786-acre site for two hyperscale data centers.

Josh Levi said the news for Mississippi is "terrific."

Levi is president of the Data Center Coalition, a membership association of leading data center owners and operators serving as the voice of the data center industry.

What type of information is stored at data centers?

"The data that will be stored at those locations have become central to our daily lives," Levi said. "The way we work, the way we learn, shop, bank, access medical care is all online and data driven. Data centers are the folks that provide the infrastructure to keep us connected and provide efficiency."

Levi said just about any business relies on information from a data center somewhere and the digital infrastructure like will be handled in Madison County.

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What type of jobs will the new data centers bring?

From a jobs perspective, Levi said that thousands of people will likely be employed in some form during the building of the facilities, which will impact the local community with jobs at places such as restaurants, hotels, rental car agencies, HVAC installers and other businesses that will have to serve the workers. He said the construction jobs will be highly skilled jobs.

As for permanent jobs at the facilities, engineering jobs will most likely be the majority related to the systems and processes of the data centers. It is also expected that IT technicians that work on servers will be on site as well as security services on various levels.

"In general, each job inside the data center provides about six jobs outside the data center," Levi said. "That's a big reason you see a lot of states and localities seeking that intense capital investment that data centers provide. It becomes an entire ecosystem surrounding the data centers."

According to Levi, data centers don't add a lot of stress to local governments with demands for new roads and local services but still are able to jump start and drive economies where they are built.

Could this project spur further investments in the state?

More importantly, according to Levi, the announcement of the hyperscale data centers coming to Madison County, could mean more data centers for Mississippi in the future.

"This is really exciting to see Mississippi fostering an environment where data centers are able to come and invest in development," Levi said. "For Mississippi, it's a matter if insuring that the policies and the environment (are) in place to unlock additional center investment over time."

Levi said that an announcement of this size is a strong signal to the data center industry that Mississippi is ready to do business.

"In my mind, this is a very substantial opportunity for Mississippi," Levi said. "As the industry decides where it wants to go with additional data center technology in the near future, (Mississippi) will have a strong case to make."

What type of training will jobs require?

As for education that goes along with the jobs, Levi said that in other parts of the nation, companies that build the data centers work with community colleges, in many cases, to specifically train some of the staff that is needed.

"It's really going to depend on the company and what type of work is going to be done, but these data centers can offer jobs with an array of educational backgrounds," he said. "Many of the technicians can be trained at the community college level with just a certificate or associate level degree. That opens things up for a vast part of the community. We have seen community colleges in other areas develop data center curriculum specifically for these jobs, which is terrific. There can be a job for everyone."

Are there any negatives to this type of investment?

In the long run, Levi said there is no downside to data center investment.

"From my perspective, there aren't any negatives," he said. "Digital infrastructure coming to Mississippi sends a strong message that Mississippi is a place to look to when folks are considering data center investment and additional build out. This provides Mississippi the opportunity to unlock additional investment I see nothing but opportunity ahead as Mississippi proceeds."

He said it's just a matter of insuring that a positive regulatory and policy environment is in place for the future.

"It's a strong start, absolutely," Levi said.

Ross Reily can be reached by email at rreily@gannett.com or 601-573-2952. You can follow him on the X platform, formerly known as Twitter @GreenOkra1.

This article originally appeared on Mississippi Clarion Ledger: Why Mississippi data center projects could mean future new business, jobs