Build data centre, incentives to be offered
The Iowa House of Representatives has voted to change the State's business incentives in an effort to lure Microsoft to build a costly data center there.
House majority Leader Kevin McCarthy said that there were several places that Microsoft was looking at, and two of them were in central Iowa locations. Iowa previously attracted Google to the state using a package of incentives, including exempted electricity and capital investments from the state's sales tax. Google has since built a $600 million server farm in the state.
Microsoft is believed to want to invest a third of a billion dollars in the project. It is not clear what the deal sweeteners will be. It is likely to be similar to the Google deal.