By Sandra Watson | AZ Daily Star
In just a few short years, AI has revolutionized our lives. It’s also transformed the economic development landscape, with the world’s most advanced technology companies making investments in the hundreds of billions and dollars and creating tens of thousands of high-wage jobs.
With our robust industry base, reliable energy grid, and attractive investment environment, Arizona is well-positioned to capitalize on the AI boom, with the potential for significant new job creation and capital investment.
To be successful, we must be open to all opportunities in the AI sector while continuing to pursue smart, strategic growth.
Data centers represent the backbone of AI development and offer a significant economic opportunity for Arizona. These highly specialized facilities house computer systems, servers, and related hardware that store, process, and manage vast amounts of digital information.
Arizona has become one of the nation’s leading markets for data centers due to our affordable, abundant energy, relative lack of natural disasters, and low-cost business environment. Tech giants, including Amazon, American Express, Apple, Google, Meta, Microsoft, Oracle, PayPal, and more, all operate data centers in Arizona.
As Arizona has welcomed historic investment in data infrastructure, we’ve built valuable relationships with these companies and more, which are pioneering the AI revolution. As this technology continues to develop, and further opportunities emerge, these relationships will be crucial.
