The State Senate for Michigan has approved a bill to introduce financial incentives to encourage the building of local data centres by offering tax breaks for relevant equipment and machinery until 2050.
Senate Bill 237 is now headed to the Michigan House for further scrutiny, with the hope of bringing more tech companies into the state.
According to DataCenters.com, Michigan includes a total of 28 data centres and 15 data centre providers.
Certain qualifications apply to be eligible for the tax break, including making a minimum US$250m (£198.3m) in capital investments, including creating and keeping at least 30 jobs in-state that pat at least 150% of Michigan’s prosperity region’s median wage.
A site just two miles of Michigan’s southern border in Indiana was selected for the building of Google’s new US$2bn (£1.5bn) data centre, with Amazon Web Services also committing US$11bn (£8.7bn) to the building of data centres in Indiana.
“Data centres power everything from email and social media to search engines and online banking, and with increased investments in artificial intelligence, there is a growing demand for more data generation, processing and storage,” said Michigan Senator Kevin Hertel.
“Not only do data centres serve as the backbone of our increasingly digital world, but they are economic engines that help fuel long-term community growth. These multi-billion dollar investments translate into greater state and local tax revenue that goes to funding our schools and our roads.”
