Amazon’s $10 billion investment marks a new era for Richmond County

HAMLET — Amazon Web Services is investing at least $10 billion into a new artificial intelligence data center campus in Richmond County, Governor Josh Stein announced Wednesday. The investment, part of the newly unveiled Project Blue Marlin, is expected to generate at least 500 full-time jobs and thousands of construction jobs over the next decade.

“This is a historic day for Richmond County and North Carolina— transformational days is what we like to call it,” said Martie Butler, Richmond County economic developer.

Governor Stein emphasized the scale of the project, calling it one of the largest capital investments in state history.

“Frankly, because I’m greedy, that’s the floor,” Stein said. “We’re going to be up on top of that. I’m confident this is one of the largest capital investments ever made in the history of North Carolina.”

Amazon’s strong presence in the state helped pave the way for this new chapter, according to Stein.

“While it’s a new project, Amazon has had a long and proud relationship with the people here in North Carolina,” he said. “It has helped multiple state agencies to modernize our IT infrastructure, particularly during the pandemic. Today, however, represents a whole new chapter in North Carolina’s relationship with Amazon and we are damn excited about it.”

Richmond County was selected for its strategic advantages and alignment with Amazon’s priorities.

“Richmond County is a perfect, perfect home for this investment. North Carolina has a world-class workforce. Well educated, whether in our robust community college system like Richmond Community College… there are many wonderful universities, public and private We are strategically located here in North Carolina on the east coast with an excellent transportation network. As North Carolinians, we are proud of our quality of life and our affordability, including power and we are proud of our commitment to clean energy. Amazon shares this clean energy commitment— it has set an internal goal of reaching net-zero,” said Stein.

Stein credited the announcement to collaboration across multiple areas and praised local and state leaders, Duke Energy and the Richmond County community.

“The announcement is a result of a strong collaboration— any big event like this takes a lot of people working in concert to make it happen,” he said. “But my big hat tip is especially dedicated to the people of Richmond County. Announcements like this don’t just happen. These folks have worked hard for a long time for this day to come.”

Roger Wehner, director of economic development for Amazon Web Services, echoed the sentiment and emphasized the company’s commitment to long-term partnership with the community.

“We couldn’t be happier about our experience here so far and we’re super excited about this announcement this morning,” Wehner said.

Wehner revealed that Amazon’s journey to Richmond County began with a conversation about energy in 2023 and evolved through close collaboration with Duke Energy.

“if it wasn’t for Duke Energy putting that site in our radar and then being incredibly customer obsessed about our relationship in a business going forward together and being patient with us at time, we would not be sitting here today having this discussion and celebrating this wonderful milestone, so I just want to thank the Duke Energy team for everything that they’ve done,” he said.

He praised local leaders, including Butler and County Manager Bryan Land, for their dedication and diligence.

“They made us be very specific about what our partnership in this community would look like and I think we’ve earned their trust at this point,” Wehner said.

According to Wehner, construction on the campus is set to begin in the coming weeks.

“This is not what you may have seen,” he said. “We will continue to build in this community for the next decade for construction jobs in addition to the full-time jobs that we discussed.”

“In the coming weeks, we will start construction while the energy wave site at a pace that will probably be shocking to some, but we like to move fast. We’re going to move as fast as we can here and we’re excited about that. We will be building multiple buildings over the next decade on that site,” said Wehner.

Beyond job creation, Amazon plans to invest in public infrastructure, education and internet connectivity.

“You will see us very quickly investing in the neighborhood of $35 million dollars in public work in terms of water and sewer in the community to improve those facilities, not just for our own use, but for the broader community,” said Wehner.

“You’ll see us spending tens of millions of dollars to build fiber connectivity that stretches across the region to connect our data centers of the world, which will also have benefits for the local community. Simultaneously, we’ll be partnering with the K-12 system and the community college system to partner with them to understand what the community needs are and most importantly, to bring our programming that we’ve seen be successful around the world to build locally the skill technical workforce we need to construct, operate, maintain and connect our data centers,” he added.

Chairman Rick Watkins of the Richmond County Board of Commissioners recognizing the collaborative effort that made the announcement possible.

“Governor, we appreciate your support. Our team met with the Amazon team, the governor and secretary Lilley and his staff last week in a very productive meeting and the governor pledged his support to Richmond County in this project and we are very appreciative for that. Most of all, thank you for Amazon,” said Watkins.

“Roger and Shannon, your team has worked tirelessly and we’ve got to recognize those people, but your team has worked tirelessly for well over a year and I won’t expand on your remarks about the economic development journey, but to make today a reality so that we arrive and we can celebrate and we can be happy. Then, we will transform the local economy for our citizens will improve the quality of life for all residents, for decades to come in Richmond County,” he added.

Watkins placed the day in historical context, comparing it to other pivotal moments in the county’s past.

“Ladies and gentlemen, today we celebrate our transformational partnership with Amazon. From a historical perspective, when you think about transformation in the economy, in 1900, the railroad decided to make Richmond County the hub of the Seaboard. We’re the midpoint between New York City and Miami and they brought on their operations here and it transformed. Moving forward until today, the economy in Richmond County we were railroaders and we were handling invested in textiles and those were the things that drove the economy in Richmond County. Now, 125 years later, 125 years later today, we not only become the hub of the seaboard, but we’ve become a hub in the digital data space for not only the east coast, but for the world. That is a powerful commitment for us to get to that point,” said Watkins.

Shannon Kellogg, Amazon’s vice president of public policy, introduced a new initiative for Richmond County.

“It’s my honor to announce our commitment to the local community here in Richmond County by launching the Amazon Richmond County Community fund with an initial value of $150,000. Local community groups, educational institutions and other nonprofits to apply for grants for up to $10,000 each for new or existing community projects between now and July 23. We want to get this out the door. We encourage applications for projects supporting STEM education, sustainability, environment, economic development, community revitalization, food security, housing and I’m sure many more,” said Kellogg.