Amazon gives boost to NC economy with $10B investment plan

Perennially among the most wanted locations, North Carolina again landed one of the Big Five on Wednesday when Amazon said it would invest $10 billion towards its Amazon Web Services data center supply chain.

The global technology company, replete with e-commerce, digital streaming and online advertising, says a minimum of 500 jobs in high-tech cloud computing and artificial intelligence are coming to an innovation campus in Richmond County along the South Carolina border. Such jobs will be data center engineers, network specialists, engineering operations managers, security specialists, and other technical roles, Amazon said in a release.

The investment nearly doubles ($12 billion) what the company has poured into the Tarheel State since 2010. That year was the turn of economic development, with Republicans taking majorities in both chambers of the General Assembly for the first time in 140 years since Reconstruction and enacting major business and tax policy reforms.

“Amazon's $10 billion investment in North Carolina underscores our commitment to driving innovation and advancing the future of cloud computing and AI technologies,” said David Zapolsky, Amazon’s chief global affairs and legal officer. “This investment will position North Carolina as a hub for cutting-edge technology, create hundreds of high-skilled jobs, and drive significant economic growth. We look forward to partnering with state and local leaders, local suppliers, and educational institutions to nurture the next generation of talent.”

Amazon says it supports 24,000 full-time and part-time jobs in the state, and another 26,000 indirect jobs. Recently opening was a same-day delivery facility in Kannapolis. Planned are four “last-mile facilities” in Mount Airy, Southern Pines, Tarboro and Jacksonville.

Amazon Original movies – "The Summer I Turned Pretty," "The Peripheral," and "Merv" – have also been filmed in the state.

The Big Five tech companies, as they are colloquially known, are Amazon, Apple, Meta, Microsoft and Alphabet. Former names were Facebook rather than Meta, and Google rather than Alphabet.

Amazon’s 2024 financial report credited 11% growth year over year, up to $638 billion. It said Amazon Web Services revenue is $108 billion. Ten years earlier, the company's revenue was $89 billion and web services $4.6 billion.

Richmond County is fiscally among the state’s bottom third of 100 counties. The five-year unemployment rate exceeds 6%, median household income is in the neighborhood of $50,000 and the poverty rate is just below 20%. The population is between 90,000 and 100,000.