As per state officials, Amazon's lucrative cloud company would spend nearly $7.8 billion by the end of 2029 to expand its data centre operations in central Ohio, furthering the state's attempts to become the Midwest's technology powerhouse.

 

The new investments by Amazon Web Services, or AWS, were announced by Republican Gov. Mike DeWine and Lt. Gov. Jon Husted, who leads the governor's technology office. The financial outlay "further cements Ohio as the heart of our nation's technology and innovation," the governor said in a statement.

 

AWS opened its first data centres in the area in 2016, and it now has campuses in two counties in central Ohio, which is home to Columbus, the state's capital. In a decision that will be made later this year, the administration stated that many areas are being investigated as potential sites for the new data centres.

 

The $20 billion chip facility announced by Intel last year is now second only in size to the cloud computing company's investment in the state's private sector. Additionally, Google and Facebook run data centres in Ohio.

 

A new $110 million Centre for Software Innovation at Ohio State University and a $3.5 billion battery plant being constructed in the region by Honda and LG Energy Solution of South Korea. A Columbus-based clearinghouse for chemical research has long been a pioneer in big data processing and storage.

 

AWS, which was once a dependable source of income for Amazon, has recently been under pressure as businesses cut back on cloud computing costs in response to high inflation and recessionary fears. The IT giant's cloud division produced $21.4 billion and grew at a 16% rate in the first three months of this year, down from a 37% growth rate in the same period last year, according to the first quarter results report.