Amazon Web Services (AWS) is looking to invest $750 million in a data center project in Clinton, Mississippi.

While AWS has not been officially named, WLBT3 reports that a quitclaim deed secured by the publication states that the 99-acre plot of land was acquired by Amazon on February 13.

The data center will be located at 1001 Industrial Park Drive in Clinton, part of the Clinton Industrial Park. The site was formerly the home of Milwaukee Tool, and will see the existing building redeveloped for the data center.

The Board of Alderman in Clinton has approved a Fee-in-Lieu of Taxes deal with AWS for the project, decided at a January 15 special meeting to discuss the project. The agreement will also need to be approved by the Mississippi Development Authority. It has not been shared if the authority has greenlit the project as of yet.

Clinton is a city located in Hinds County, Mississippi, just west of Jackson in the central-west portion of the state.

In light of community concern about the project, Mayor Will Purdie posted a statement on March 3 on Facebook regarding the data center, writing that “while some construction activities to rehabilitate the building have begun, the project developer is in ongoing negotiations about some aspects of the project, which is why no public announcement has been made.”

He noted that many concerns are related to the xAI data center in Mississippi, which has raised questions about potential noise and air pollution.

“The project proposed in Clinton is fundamentally different,” Purdie said, adding: “The proposed Clinton project does not involve a power plant and will use power supplied by Entergy through the existing power grid… the proposed location is deep within an established industrial area, well removed from residential neighborhoods.”

In addition, Purdie notes that the data center will not impact rate payers, and the data center will not use potable water for cooling purposes. "This will be the largest economic development project in the history of the City and Hinds County, and will inject millions of dollars per year directly into not only the City of Clinton’s budget, but also additional millions yearly into the budget of the Clinton Public School District.”

Details about the size of the data center and its expected power draw have not been shared. According to a Loopnet listing, the property currently spans 730,000 sq ft (67,820 sqm) on a 55-acre site. It was first built in 1972. AWS has reportedly purchased an additional 44 acres, as per the quitclaim deed.

Toolmaker Milwaukee Tool revealed that it would be closing down its Clinton facility in 2023. The company opened operations in the building in 2021, having then invested some $7 million in the site.

AWS is already developing significant campuses in Mississippi. In January 2024, the company was confirmed to be behind a $10 billion data center project in Madison County - also located near Jackson - dubbed Project Atlas. The investment will include "multiple data center complexes" in two Madison County industrial parks which will create at least 1,000 jobs. Those data centers will cover around 1,700 acres of land in total.

Towards the end of last year, a further $3bn data center campus was promised for Vicksburg, Mississippi. Vicksburg lies near the Louisiana border in western Mississippi.