With $20 Billion of Investments, Mississippi Stakes Claim as Next Big Data Center Player

Mississippi is positioning itself as the next big hub for data centers. One year after Mississippi touted a then-record $10 billion investment for an Amazon data center project, construction has started on another $10 billion data center investment in the state.

Ground recently broke in Meridian, about 100 miles east of Jackson, for Compass Datacenters’ new development. The project will consist of eight buildings scheduled over the next eight years.

Data centers are massive facilities and campuses that house infrastructure for IT applications and services. The demand for these facilities has quickly increased in all corners of the United States, from New York to Louisiana.

Mississippi Gov. Tate Reeves (fourth from left), Compass Datacenters CEO Chris Crosby (fifth from left), and other state and local officials mark the groundbreaking of Compass’ data center campus in Meridian. Image: Compass Datacenters/LinkedIn

“The growing reliance on remote work and digital collaboration tools has accelerated the demand for cloud services. This, in turn, requires more data centers to manage the storage and processing needs of companies across industries,” says Economist Sebastien Tillet of Oxford Economics in a recent commentary for ConstructConnect.

The size and scale of these projects mean they can cost billions of dollars to build. Compass acknowledges the announced $10 billion in Meridian is not entirely from them. The figure includes the potential equipment eventually moved in by future tenants. In a January 2025 press release, Compass said, “The campus also will create thousands of direct and indirect jobs,” a claim echoed in news releases from the Mississippi Economic Development Council and Governor Tate Reeves (R).

Compass, based in Dallas, Texas, has built data centers across the United States, as well as some in Israel and Italy. The Meridian project will be Compass’ third in the Southeast, joining centers in Franklin, Tennessee, and Raleigh, North Carolina.

Compass Joins Amazon in Mississippi

Amazon’s January 2024 announcement that they would build two data center complexes north of Jackson marked the largest capital investment in state history.

The Mississippi legislature quickly approved $44 million in incentives for the project, most of it toward job training programs. Like Compass’s announcement, Amazon also claimed that its investment would result in at least 1,000 new jobs.

Compass will also receive incentives from Mississippi, including 10 years of state income and franchise tax exemptions and sales and use tax exemptions for necessary materials and equipment.

While Amazon’s investment pledges support for STEM education for K-12 school systems and development programs for secondary and trade schools in Mississippi, Compass has not yet announced similar initiatives.

Mississippi Helping with Power Generation

Data centers need a lot of electricity to operate. When you combine this with the rise in electric vehicles and increased usage of AI automation, the stress on North America’s power grid is increasing. The good news is that there is work being done on that front.

Michael Guckes, Chief Economist at ConstructConnect, says, “The response to the rising demand for electricity is evident in the number of recent power generation project starts with valuations exceeding $1 billion. Notable examples of recent energy megaprojects include a $10 billion wind-power farm off the coast of Virginia and a $4 billion next-generation nuclear power plant in Wyoming, among many others.”

Back in Meridian, Compass’s campus will receive around 500 megawatts of power from Mississippi Power Company.

New Normal, or Just a Trend?

Big-dollar data center investments seem to pop up every week in the U.S. In fact, just a few hours away from these new campuses in Mississippi, Meta is set to build a $10 billion data center in Richland Parish, Louisiana.

According to Tillet, we can expect to see even more.

“As digital transformation accelerates, the demand for data centers in the US will continue to grow. These facilities will play a crucial role in powering the next generation of digital services and innovations, ensuring that the US remains at the forefront of economic growth,” he says.

With Mississippi often called “The Hospitality State,” local government and business leaders are likely ready to roll out the welcome mat for more data center developments. 

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