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Amazon (AMZN-2.87%) is almost doubling its investment in North Carolina, announcing $10 billion worth of AI infrastructure for Amazon Web Services’ supply chain of data centers. It cited increased demand for compute power due to generative AI.
In the past 15 years, the retail behemoth has injected $12 billion into the state, where it has 13 fulfillment centers, as well as wind and solar farms. The company says this expansion will create 500 new high-skilled jobs.
Governor Josh Stein voiced his enthusiasm in a press release, noting that “Amazon’s investment is among the largest in state history.” The company is also creating training programs for data center technicians and $150,000 in grants for STEM education.
The data centers will be located in Richmond Country, which includes the city of Rockingham, which is 70 miles southeast of Charlotte, along the border with South Carolina. It’s 100 miles south of Raleigh, a major tech hub in the region.
In March, Amazon broke ground on a robotics fulfillment center in Wilmington, North Carolina, a four-and-a-half-story building with more than 3 million square feet of floor space. Although it will be focused on automation, the company promised it would create more than 1,000 full- and part-time jobs. It’s expected to open in 2026.
In February, 75% of workers at an Amazon fulfillment center in Garner, a suburb of Raleigh, rejected a proposal to unionize by a group called CAUSE: Carolina Amazonians United for Solidarity and Empowerment. The group’s spokesperson, Rev. Ryan Brown, told CBS News (PARA-0.77%): “We knew that historically the tide was against us to have a win for several reasons. One, we’re in the South. Two, the average worker that’s in North Carolina knows nothing about a union and the benefits of a union and what a union could do for them.”