Microsoft has invested $346.7m to expand its Boydton, Virginia, data center – its third expansion of the facility.

Microsoft’s original project in Mecklenburg County 2010 involved an investment of up to $499m.

In 2011 the company invested an additional $150m to expand the site and in 2013 Microsoft announced a $348m expansion bringing the total invested into the Boydton facility $1.2bn.

Governor of Virginia Terry McAuliffe said the Microsoft’s success and continued investment is a powerful testament to the benefits of doing business in Virginia and the thriving data center industry in the Commonwealth.

Virginia’s secretary of commerce and trade Maurice Jones said Microsoft has played an important role in the success of Mecklenburg County and South Virginia since it opened its data center in 2010.

“The company continues to grow its operation, and this significant expansion is another example of state partners working together to meet a corporation’s needs within a short timeframe,” Jones said.

McAuliffe approved a $1.6m grant from the Governor’s Opportunity Fund to assist Mecklenburg County with the project and the Virginia Tobacco Indemnification and Community Revitalization Commission also approved $1.6m in Tobacco Region Opportunity Funds for the project.

In April Microsoft announced its plans to build a $1.1bn data center in Iowa; it’s second in the state.

The project, for which the company received tax breaks from the state, will expand infrastructure capacity for its cloud services, whose role in its overall business strategy has been quickly growing in importance.

Last week Microsoft opened the doors to its Brazil South Azure data center in Sao Paulo state following an increase in demand for cloud services- Microsoft has invested $15bn into its global data center infrastructure.

In its Q3 2014 results Microsoft's Azure revenue witnessed growth of more than 150%.