Amazon has bought a university campus in Virginia and is eventually planning to develop it into a new data center campus.

First reported by the GQ Hatchet, the student paper of George Washington University (GWU), Amazon has acquired the university’s Virginia Science and Technology Campus in Ashburn, Virginia.

“This decision was made after careful consideration by the GW board of trustees and university leadership and is part of a broader strategy to strengthen GW’s long-term financial health and to invest more deeply in our academic mission and community,” said GWU president, Ellen M. Granberg.

The 122-acre property, along George Washington Blvd, was acquired by Amazon Data Services for $427 million, with the cloud company reportedly looking to develop the site into a data center campus, according to university documents.

Details of Amazon’s planned development haven’t been shared.

The sale price equates to around $3.5 million per acre. The sale was greenlit in October but closed late last month.

“This is a pivotal moment for the University,” GWU CFO Bruno Fernandes said. “This transaction will bolster our financial resources and provide us [with] critical opportunities to deal with our priorities going forward.”

The university will retain the property for up to five years as it works to relocate operations. Launched in 1991, the campus is currently home to the School of Nursing and 17 research labs, centers, and institutes, along with some 850 faculty and staff.

The site also hosts GWU’s main data center, located in the Enterprise Hall at 44983 Knoll Square.

The university confirmed to the Hatchet that the proceeds of the sale will be placed in a quasi-endowment and will pool the funds within the University’s endowment portfolio.

Amazon has a major and ever-growing presence across Virginia. Loudoun County hosted Amazon Web Services’ (AWS) first data centers when the book-selling company launched its first cloud facilities in 2006.

Today, the company is known to own or lease data centers around Haymarket, Manassas, Ashburn, Sterling, Chantilly, Warrenton, and McNair, to name a few, spanning Loudoun, Fairfax, Prince William, and Fauquier Counties.

The company’s exact footprint isn’t known, but it totals more than 50 data centers across the region, with dozens more in development. Greenpeace estimated the company had 1.7GW of capacity in the area back in 2019, having more than doubled that figure since 2015. Amazon's US-East Northern Virginia cloud region has been described as the largest single concentration of corporate data centers in the world.

As well as growing its existing footprint in Loudoun, Fairfax, and Prince William with new facilities, DCD has seen AWS active with plans for new projects in Fauquier, Culpeper, King George, Spotsylvania, Stafford, Louisa, Orange, and Caroline Counties.