Facebook is heading to the Commonwealth State.
The Silicon Valley giant plans to invest $1 billion in Virginia as a part of its plan to build a 970,000-square-foot data center in Henrico County, the county neighboring Richmond, Virginia. The Richmond Times-Dispatch first reported the news.
In an announcement Thursday, Gov. Terry McAuliffe said the deal was three years in the making, and a Facebook spokesperson said the data center, the company's eighth, will be one of the most energy-efficient centers in the world.
In all, Facebook will spend $750 million on constructing the space and $250 million on building multiple solar facilities that will power the data center. The new center will be located in the White Oak Technology Park in Henrico County, and according to the Virginia Economic Development Partnership, the company will receive about $19 million in state tax exemptions through the year 2035.
The announcement makes sense for Virginia. Earlier in 2017, Henrico's board of supervisors lowered the county's taxes on computers and equipment related to data centers. And, under a new renewable energy tariff designed by Facebook and Dominion Energy Virginia, that $250 million will go towards ensuring the center powered by 100 percent renewable energy.
Facebook's other data centers are in Oregon, North Carolina and Iowa. The company also has locations in Fort Worth, Texas; Los Lunas, New Mexico; and New Albany, Ohio under construction.
Facebook is expecting to hire 100 full-time employees at the Virginia location, and the construction is expected to create thousands of jobs. The data center is expected to open in 2019.
