AWS, Compass headline new arrivals in the Magnolia State.
Mississippi rewrote the rulebook for large-scale data center site selection.
Gone are the days when these big-budget computational giants clustered only in established hubs in large metro areas.
Today, the largest data centers in the world scour the planet for these primary assets: access to massive amounts of power; ready-to-develop sites that are fully assembled and entitled; access to fiber optic trunk lines that have redundant capacity and state-of-the-art functionality; willing and supportive partners at every level of government and public utility infrastructure; and a favorable business climate that treats private investment capital well and rewards patience.
Mississippi provides all of this and more. Two gargantuan data center projects prove it.
In the span of just 12 months, the Magnolia State landed its two largest capital investment projects in history: a $10 billion data center investment by Amazon Web Services in Madison County in January 2024; and a $10 billion data center commitment by Compass Datacenters in Lauderdale County in January 2025.
How this happened is a story in long-range planning, patient building of a business-friendly climate, aggressive restructuring of economic development and marketing strategies, and collaboration between governments and public utility companies.
People will say that Amazon got the ball rolling on January 25, 2024, when it pledged to build two large data center campuses near the state capital of Jackson in Madison County, but folks in the know say the groundwork for this success was plowed much earlier.
In fact, you have to go all the way back to 2017, when Gray Swoope, former director of the Mississippi Development Authority and now founder and president of VisionFirst Advisors in Tallahassee, Florida, joined Entergy Mississippi President and CEO Haley Fisackerly and an AWS executive for an informal conversation at the historic Fairview Inn in Jackson.
The three leaders began sketching out a rough plan on the back of a napkin for how Mississippi could enter the data center game. What followed next was a master class in business environment overhaul and state government policymaking.
Rendering of Amazon Web Services’ data center worker training facility in Madison County.
Rendering courtesy of AWS
Making History Happen
By the time AWS selected a mega-site of over 1,000 acres in Canton in Madison County, the state had put in place all of the essentials for attracting a 1 gigawatt data center complex. It began with the site, the beneficiary of a 7-year-long effort to secure and prepare new industrial sites under the Mississippi Site Development Grant Program.
Fisackerly said that “there were five to six things that we needed to do in Mississippi if we were going to land one of these giant data center deals. After that meeting (at the Fairview), we began to make various changes on how we make Mississippi more attractive and get more funding for both site development and workforce development.”
One of those changes was crafting a $259 million incentives package to seal the deal. Prior to deal signing, the state approved a $44 million incentives package for the project, with $32 million of that earmarked for worker training. The incentives package includes a 10-year, 100% corporate income tax exemption, along with sales and use tax exemptions for construction and any investments made for up to one year after construction.
The rest, as they say, is history. Amazon made it official with its historic investment announcement in Jackson on January 25, 2024. The project creates 1,000 high-wage jobs and supports new educational training in Mississippi to support the future workforce needs of the various AWS facilities and operations.
Kerry Person, vice president of data center planning and delivery for AWS, recently provided an update on the mega-project. In a May 19 email exchange, he noted that “we continue to make progress on the development of our state-of-the-art data center campuses in Mississippi. We expect several of these data centers to become operational before the end of this year. We’re expanding our original four-building campus with a fifth facility to keep up with customer demand. This expansion allows us to capitalize on currently available power resources and maximize the site’s potential to best serve our customers.”
The expansion is likely to take the total AWS investment in Mississippi to well above the originally announced figure of $10 billion. Person said that AWS could not have done this deal without massive support from multiple parties in the state.
“We’ve had a great experience working with state and local officials and partners across Mississippi. The state welcomed us with open arms, and we look forward to the continued partnership and collaboration across our teams.”
— Kerry Person, Vice President of Data Center Planning and Delivery, AWS
“We’ve had a great experience working with state and local officials and partners across Mississippi,” he added. “The state welcomed us with open arms, and we look forward to the continued partnership and collaboration across our teams. Groups like Accelerate MS and the Central Mississippi Planning and Development District are some of the finest partners we’ve worked with. They lower barriers, solve problems, make connections, and execute effectively and quickly. We constantly brag about the various Mississippi teams we work with and the state’s workforce development leaders when we are in other states.”
AWS data center workers.
Photo courtesy of AWS
Person reiterated that data center site selection is a rigorous and ongoing process at AWS headquarters. “We carefully select our data center locations based on electric grid reliability and its renewable power generation to mitigate risk – including extreme weather and seismic activity; access to robust networks; and the overall economics which includes the cost of power, cost of land and other factors,” he said. “The strong foundation built by Mississippi state leaders through policy, economic development and educational initiatives continues to deliver results. We’re excited to see Mississippi cementing its position as a center of investment and innovation, and we look forward to our continued growth in the Magnolia State.”
Compass Finds its True North
If AWS was transformational for Mississippi, then what followed one year later was the confirmation that AWS would not be a one-off. On January 9, 2025, Dallas-based Compass Datacenters announced it would develop its next hyperscale data center campus in Meridian in Lauderdale County in East Mississippi. The $10 billion investment will consist of eight data centers that will be built over an eight-year period.
The new campus will create thousands of direct and indirect jobs, according to the company. MDA is providing assistance with site preparation and 10-year state income and franchise tax exemptions, as well as a sales and use tax exemption on construction materials, equipment, and software and hardware replacements.
The City of Meridian, Lauderdale County and electrical utility provider Mississippi Power Company are also helping the company. Under the terms of the deal, Mississippi Power will supply about 500 megawatts of power to the site.
AWS and Compass have announced data center investments in Canton and Meridian, respectively.
Bill Hannah, president and CEO of East Mississippi Business Development Corp., says that talks with Compass began early in 2024, but many months went by before he and the state knew for sure that the Texas multinational would acquire the 303-acre site in the I-20 Industrial Development Park in Meridian.
Located near the intersection of I-20 and I-59 close to the Alabama border, the site is considered prime real estate for industrial and commercial development. It is also located just 92 miles from the Jackson metro area.
“We happen to be right in the middle of Dallas and Atlanta on I-20 with a fiber trunk line,” says Hannah. “This is a 400-acre industrial park right on the interstate.”
As was the case with AWS, the seeds for this project were sewn years ago. “The site work and the development of the park happened over a long period of time,” says Hannah. “The industrial park was bought in the late 1990s. Ever since, there has been development work done in the park to add water and sewer and gas. Mississippi Power and East Mississippi Power Association both have power in the park. A dedicated substation was placed in the park. It has been an ongoing process.”
“This is a game-changer for East Mississippi.”
— Bill Hannah, President and CEO, East Mississippi Business Development Corporation
A breakthrough came when the state legislature allocated $4 million for preliminary site work. The company then purchased the land and signed the deal.
“This is a game-changer for East Mississippi,” says Hannah. “It was announced as a $10 billion project, but it will probably be bigger than that. The state, the governor, MDA and the legislature over time provided an environment for these big projects to happen. This is bigger than anything else to come here. This will be Mississippi Power’s largest customer in their whole system. It is hard putting something like this together, but we depend on our partners and our relationships with them. In this instance, the power company, the state and the city all pushed in the same direction to make this deal happen.”
Craig Hitt, community development director for the City of Meridian, concurs. He says that the Compass investment “will have a significant impact on our community. This is one of the largest projects in Mississippi history. When you look at what this means for Meridian and Lauderdale County, the construction and the jobs are a major plus for our area.”
In a county of 70,000 people, Hitt calls this deal “a huge accomplishment for our county and region. The impact will be statewide.”
A ready site, the power commitment, and the state and local incentives sealed the deal, Hitt adds. “The Meridian Community College Workforce Development Center has the ability to customize worker training for individual companies,” he says. “With a great school system, a branch campus for Mississippi State University and Meridian Community College, we are a great place for businesses to locate and to bring their employees to live, work and grow. We see our region as a quiet gold mine.”
