• Amazon will invest another $10 billion in Ohio data centers, Ohio Gov. Mike DeWine said.
• The company will consider locations outside its power-strained hub in Columbus.
• In exchange for tax credits, Amazon committed to more than 1,000 new jobs in its Ohio data centers.

Amazon has committed to spending $10 billion on the expansion of its Ohio data center operations, in addition to the billions of dollars it has already said it plans to spend in the state, Ohio Gov. Mike DeWine said Monday.

The tech giant's new Ohio facilities, which should be completed by the end of 2030, will help power the push into AI by its cloud computing unit, Amazon Web Services.

Just last year, AWS said it would invest $7.8 billion to expand its data center hub in Columbus and the surrounding suburbs. The company started building data centers in the region in 2015 and has at least six different campuses that are either operational or under construction.

Ohio has committed to spending more than $23 billion on data centers in the state between the money it has already spent and its committed investments, a spokesperson for Ohio's Department of Development said.

The investment in Ohio is part of Amazon's aggressive spending plan on data center construction to support AI demand. Amazon CEO Andy Jassy said on the company's third-quarter earnings call in October that it plans to spend $75 billion on capital expenditures in 2024, most of which will go to cloud computing and data centers, and it expects to spend even more next year.

Local politicians have dubbed the Central Ohio "the Silicon Heartland." Gov. DeWine touted the AWS announcement this week as "strengthening the state's role as a major technology hub."

Most of Amazon's data centers are located in Northern Virginia, the largest data center market in the world. That area has become saturated with new facilities waiting to be connected to the electric grid. In the last 18 months, Amazon and its competitors have announced plans to build data centers in states nationwide. Just this year, Amazon announced plans to spend $11 billion on data centers in Indiana and $10 billion in Mississippi.

Job creation in Ohio

Ohio, which offers a generous slate of state and local tax incentives, including an up to 100% sales and use tax exemption for data center equipment, has seen a sharp uptick in development.

For this latest investment, the Ohio Tax Credit Authority approved additional job creation tax credits in AWS's existing economic development agreement with the state. In exchange for annual job creation tax credits, AWS has promised 1,058 "full-time equivalent" jobs with a minimum average annual payroll of $101.37 million, a spokesperson for Ohio's Department of Development told Business Insider.

Ohio law defines "full-time equivalent employees" as the result of a calculation, or "dividing the total number of hours for which employees were compensated for employment in the project by two thousand eighty." The employees must be directly employed by Amazon for the company to receive its tax credits, although there is no requirement for the kinds of jobs Amazon must offer.

When BI contacted AWS and asked what types of jobs would be available in its new Ohio data centers, an AWS spokesperson reiterated the information listed in Gov. DeWine's press release, which referred to the jobs as "new" and "well-paying."

Electricity demand rises

AWS's financial commitment to the state will hinge on whether local utilities can provide the amount of electricity the company eventually says it will need.

AEP Ohio, the Columbus utility that serves Amazon, said earlier this year that it received 30 gigawatts of service requests from data centers alone — an amount that would put the region's demand for electricity close to New York City's.

Much of that demand comes from the wealthy suburban enclave of New Albany, Ohio, where Meta, Microsoft, Google, and QTS are all constructing major data center projects. The site of Intel's future semiconductor chip plant is in neighboring Johnstown, Ohio. The New Albany Company, the real estate company founded by billionaire retail mogul Les Wexner, orchestrated many of the area's major land sales to tech companies, including Intel.

For its newest data centers, AWS will look to sites beyond the Columbus region, though no locations have been finalized, according to a statement from Gov. DeWine's office. If AWS locates a data center outside the Columbus region, it would likely be outside AEP's service territory.

AEP has asked Ohio's public utilities regulator to approve a tariff and a special rate class for data centers that would require the power-hungry facilities to pay for the majority of electricity they anticipate needing — even if they ultimately do not consume all of it.

The data center industry, including Amazon, is working to quash AEP's proposal. In a November testimony filed with the Public Utilities Commission of Ohio, Michael Fradette, who leads Amazon's energy strategy, called the proposal a "discriminatory structure" that "unfairly targets data center customers by targeting customers in specific industries."

The matter has sowed division among corporate interests in Ohio. Those who oppose the tariffs include the Ohio Manufacturers' Association Energy Group, a lobbying offshoot of the state's major manufacturing industry trade group, and the Ohio Energy Leadership Council, which is represented by David Proaño, a lawyer in BakerHostetler's Columbus office who also represents Amazon's data center business before the Public Utilities Commission of Ohio.

Meanwhile, Ohio Energy Group, which counts Cargill, Ford, GE, and Intel as members, has testified in favor of AEP's proposed data center tariffs. Walmart, a large customer of AEP in Ohio, has also come out supporting the tariff.

AEP is planning new transmission infrastructure projects to service data centers in the Columbus area, as well as the Intel chip plant. The future of the chip plant, which is supposed to bring 3,000 advanced manufacturing jobs to central Ohio, is uncertain as the company debates spinning off its struggling foundry business.

Rising energy demand from Columbus area data centers has triggered the need for new transmission infrastructure. Under AEP's existing rate structures, the costs of new transmission lines to data centers could be spread to other ratepayers.

Many of AEP's residential, commercial, and industrial customers saw transmission costs rise by $10 monthly in April, the fourth rate increase approved for the utility in three years. Next year, average bill totals will increase another $1.50 a month to support grid reliability, the utility said.

Do you have insight, information, or a tip to share with this reporter? Contact Ellen Thomas via the secure messaging app Signal at +1-929-524-6964.

• Canada's antitrust watchdog is suing Google.
• Canadian regulators say Google abused its position as the largest adtech provider in the country.
• It's the latest in a series of legal challenges brought against the tech giant.

Canada's antitrust watchdog is suing Google over its anti-competitive conduct in its adtech business, the country's Competition Bureau said Thursday.

The Competition Bureau, Canada's independent law enforcement agency responsible for regulating anti-competitive conduct, wants the tech giant to sell two of its adtech products and pay a fine that could total up to 3% of its global gross revenue.

The antitrust watchdog said Google is the largest provider of adtech services in Canada and has "abused" its position to maintain market dominance.

"Google's conduct locks market participants into using its own adtech tools, prevents rivals from being able to compete on the merits of their offering, and otherwise distorts the competitive process," the antitrust watchdog said.

This suit is the latest in a series of legal challenges against Google for alleged anti-competitive behavior.

Earlier this month, the Department of Justice urged District Judge Amit Mehta to force Google to sell off its Chrome browser as a remedy in a landmark antitrust case. In August, Judge Mehta found that Google holds an illegal monopoly in its search business.

In September, the Department of Justice and 17 state attorneys general brought an antitrust suit against Google in the Eastern District of Virginia over its alleged digital ad market monopoly.

That same month, Europe's top court also upheld a 2017 decision in another antitrust case against Google, where it was ordered to pay a €2.4 billion fine.

Advertising is crucial to Google's business. Google parent Alphabet has reported $220.8 billion in revenue from advertising for the first nine months of the year — 87% of its total revenue during that same time period.

Google did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

• Winter storms may disrupt Thanksgiving travel in the Northeast US this year.
• Heavy snowfall is forecast in New England and Great Lakes.
• Lake effect snow could bring up to five feet of snow in northern New York.

Winter storms could disrupt Thanksgiving weekend plans for some of the record 80 million Americans who traveled more than 50 miles from home this year.

Heavy snowfall is expected in New England through Friday morning and areas along the Great Lakes through Saturday, according to the National Weather Service.

Parts of New England could see up to one foot of fresh snow by Friday morning. And over the weekend, a lake-effect snowstorm downwind of Lake Ontario could total up to five feet of snow in northern New York. The lake effect snow is expected to cover from Cleveland to Buffalo.

The lake effect snow is expected to start over the weekend and will likely continue through the next week.

"You can often get thundersnow with it and extremely high rates of snow, so it's a spectacular thing but a relatively small-scale thing," William Churchill, a meteorologist for the National Weather Service, told Business Insider.

Thundersnow occurs when there is lightning during a snowstorm.

The vast majority of Thanksgiving travelers travel by car, according to the American Automobile Association. This year, 71.7 million people were expected on the road.

The number of Americans expected to travel more than 50 miles for Thanksgiving this year was up from pre-pandemic levels. In 2019, there were 77.8 million travelers, according to AAA.