Capital One, the sixth-largest bank in the US, has chosen Virginia, its home state, over Texas for its US$150m data center construction project, Virginia governor Bob McDonnell’s office announced Wednesday.

The data center will be part of the company’s core IT infrastructure, including systems that serve the bank’s customers. Capital One needs to expand its data center capacity as it has recently acquired ING Direct, the US direct banking division of the ING Group, as well as the US credit-card portfolio of HSBC.

Capital One CIO Rob Alexander said IT was a competitive advantage in today’s environment. ” With the new Chesterfield data center as a key element of the company's simplified and automated infrastructure, we are proud to continue our strong relationship with Virginia and expand our workforce here,” he said.

The company, which is based in Virginia, is getting a lot of financial assistance with the project in Chesterfield County from the state. Officials are expecting the data center to add 50 jobs to the region’s economy.

In addition to a sales-tax exemption on computer equipment (through a state law on the books since 2009), McDonnell has approved a $500,000 grant from his Opportunity Fund to help with the project, and the state’s Department of Business Assistance will provide both funding and services in support of recruitment, training and retraining activities associated with the data center project.