JACKSON, Miss. (AP) — Mississippi lawmakers met in special session Thursday and quickly approved job training money and other state incentives to support a plan by Amazon Web Services to spend $10 billion to build two data centers in the central part of the state.
Republican Gov. Tate Reeves had announced Wednesday that a tech company would build the centers at two sites north of the capital city of Jackson, but he withheld the company’s name until after legislators approved a $44 million incentive package. Most of the state money, $32 million, will go toward job training programs.
“Mississippi is building a business climate that is ripe for further growth, especially in the technology sector,” Reeves said Thursday. “On top of that, we’re doing what it takes to prepare our workforce to take on these high-paying, technologically advanced jobs of the future.”
Reeves said the project by Amazon’s cloud business will be the state’s largest-ever private corporate investment — four times larger than the previous record.