Microsoft acquired the 1,350-acre Person County Mega Park. The company paid nearly $27 million for land which the county has been trying to sell for the last 10 years. While it’s likely the company will construct a data center, no plans have been formalized yet. The Triangle Business Journal reports the company has said it wants to double its data center capacity by the end of 2024.

The Person County site is one of a handful of unfilled megasites in the state. Officials have said developing more megasites is critical to attracting large investments from major companies. Megasites were created to simplify things for potentially large users who do not want to go through a protracted planning process. They are basically shovel-ready land that shaves years off of a project timeline. 

Data centers have significant energy requirements. The Person County site is between a Duke Energy and Enbridge Gas power plant. Person County is 30 miles north of Durham.

The Development Authority of Fulton County voted to approve $75 million in tax savings over a 10-year period for a Microsoft data center in Union City. The project on vacant land at 4810 Stonewall Tell Road is estimated to be valued at $1.8 billion and will be built by data center developer EdgeConnex. The motion included that all three phases of the project to build the data center campus, which will include three buildings, have to be completed no later than 2032. Each building will be about 612,000 square feet. Union City is southwest of Atlanta.

The data center campus will require about 400 to 600 construction jobs during development.

The tax incentives could help the developer offset the site development costs, which are estimated at around $43.5 million. Microsoft purchased 136 acres in Fulton County in April 2024 for $53.5 million.

The data center, once up and running, will employ at least 50 permanent trades and technology personnel.