Chairmen Chavez and Holmes, and Members of the Joint Committee on Data Centers:
JobsOhio respectfully submits this testimony to support the Committee’s study of data center development in Ohio. We offer it in the spirit the Committee has set for its own work: helping ensure that Ohioans have clear, reliable, and usable information about a sector that is moving quickly.
JobsOhio is a private, nonprofit corporation, serving as the state’s lead economic development organization. JobsOhio is not a state agency and does not exercise governmental authority. Our organization is funded by the profits generated from the efficient operation of Ohio’s liquor enterprise rather than taxpayer dollars. That structure is deliberate: it lets us move at the speed of business while remaining accountable for measurable results – jobs created and retained, payroll generated, and capital invested across the state.
We conduct our work through a network of seven regional partners, so that decisions are informed by the people closest to each community rather than dictated from a single central office. And, so that JobsOhio’s programs and initiatives can be translated into a context that is relevant for each of our state’s unique regional economies. Our funding and programs are concentrated on attracting investments and jobs from within ten priority industries. One of these targeted industries is the information technology sector, which has seen immense growth in Ohio in recent years. Data centers are increasingly critical service providers for every other industry we serve – manufacturing, logistics, aerospace, finance, life sciences, and more.
Ohio’s Dynamic Digital Ecosystem
Today, Ohio is one of the most consequential digital growth markets in the Great Lakes region and the Columbus metropolitan area is the region’s fastest-expanding data center hub.
That growth tracks with facilities that have grown dramatically in size and energy intensity. The average U.S. data center was roughly 50,000 square feet – about the size of a typical warehouse or community center – prior to 2016 when it doubled. By 2025, it approached 200,000 square feet, comparable to a full research campus, and facilities planned through 2030 average roughly 300,000 square feet. The ten biggest in the Great Lakes region exceed that.
Behind these numbers are distinct types of operators. Hyperscale facilities, built and owned by the largest cloud and AI platform providers, carry multi-megawatt power loads – they negotiate directly with the state and with host communities. Wholesale facilities lease large blocks of capacity to one or a few major tenants. Retail and colocation facilities are smaller, serving many businesses closer to home. Over the past decade, Ohio’s mix of operators has shifted markedly
away from small, retail-oriented centers and toward much larger wholesale and hyperscale installations.
Following the shift in operators, the build model is also evolving toward “behind-the-meter” generation – projects that bring dedicated power online rather than drawing solely from the existing grid. Done well, this can relieve pressure on the shared grid and on other ratepayers. It also introduces a trade-off worth highlighting for the Committee: the land use tradeoffs entailed in siting large-scale generation alongside large-scale compute.
Ohioans are asking are fair questions about electricity demand and what it means for other ratepayers, about water, and about land use. Analyses we’ve conducted around news and social media on this topic show a genuine debate on those terms, industry actions to address them, and a strong case for the jobs and local revenue these projects can bring to the communities that host them. JobsOhio engages that debate on the merits. Much of our work with regional partners and host communities is aimed at helping local leaders weigh exactly those tradeoffs before decisions are made. We applaud this committee’s efforts to better understand the revenue impacts, both positive and negative, associated with these investments. This information is critical for communities as they consider whether to seek to attract these projects.
One additional factor we have noted in the conversation is worthy of consideration by this committee: How will the decisions made affect our national security and Ohio’s place in America’s leadership in the AI race with China?
JobsOhio’s Advisory Role on Data Center Projects
JobsOhio’s engagement with specific data center projects is largely indirect and advisory – delivered through the state and through our regional network partners. When a company is considered for the state’s data center sales-tax exemption, JobsOhio’s role is to share insights and background with the Ohio Department of Development regarding the project under review. The decision itself rests with the state’s Tax Credit Authority and the administration – not with JobsOhio.
If requested, we invest our time, professional expertise, and systems to assist our regional economic development partners and local communities in coordinating with interested data center companies, as we maintain working relationships with industry leaders.
JobsOhio Does Not Offer Financial Incentives to Data Center Developers
It is important to emphasize that JobsOhio does not currently offer JobsOhio grants, loans or other financial incentives to attract data center projects and have not done so in more than a decade.
Yet, we are pleased to report that the single exception has delivered exceptional returns for the state treasury. In 2014-2015, JobsOhio made a one-time incentive to support Amazon Web Services’ (AWS) first data center investment in the state of Ohio – in New Albany. Since then,
AWS has committed to invest $23 billion in Ohio by 2030 – the second-largest planned investment by a single private-sector company in the state’s history. AWS has previously reported that it contributed an estimated $3.8 billion to Ohio’s GDP through 2023 alone. It has exceeded its original hiring and payroll commitments roughly fivefold, supporting approximately 1,000 direct jobs and another 3,000 full-time-equivalent indirect jobs.
JobsOhio’s Focus: Growing Ohio’s AI Ecosystem
In our JobsOhio 2030 strategic plan, we have targeted AI & Semiconductors as one of six Super Sectors – cross-cutting, trillion-dollar industries that leverage complementary technologies, markets, workforce, customers, and supply chains to create a hyper-growth ecosystem. This strategy leverages Ohio’s historic strengths, nation-leading workforce, and culture of innovation to fully realize Ohio’s “Silicon Heartland” vision.
We focus on attracting the fast-growing suppliers to the semiconductor and data center industries, drawn by Ohio’s strategic infrastructure and proximity to market-leading innovators. Ohio now has more than 350 semiconductor suppliers operating across 47 counties statewide – that’s a more than 200 percent increase since the Intel announcement in 2022.
Ohio’s pursuit of the data center supply chain is yielding similar momentum in high-growth digital and power infrastructure, and in smaller specialty manufacturers across the state. These are companies that supply the industry: the businesses that build the power, cooling, fabrication, and infrastructure that make data centers possible, and that grow and prosper as the sector grows. With the increased focus on reshoring these companies are more frequently choosing to invest in the United States to ensure supply chain resiliency.
To give you a closer view of the marketplace, we invite the committee to consider Vertiv, Accelevation, Westrafo and AC Green LLC – four companies JobsOhio is partnering with to expand job generation, fixed capital investment and prosperity across our great state.
Vertiv – Westerville and Ironton
Vertiv, headquartered in Westerville, solves many of the toughest challenges facing today’s data centers, communication networks, and industrial facilities, with a portfolio of power, cooling, and IT infrastructure that reaches from the cloud to the edge of the network in more than 130 countries. Two months ago, Vertiv announced a $50 million investment to expand its operations, including advanced manufacturing in Ironton, in Sen. Wilkin’s district – a project expected to create up to 730 new jobs in the state through 2029. More than 500 of those jobs will be in Ironton, making it the largest job-creation project in Southeast Ohio since JobsOhio was established in 2011, with benefits reaching across Lawrence County and neighboring Appalachian counties. JobsOhio is supporting the investment with a $3 million grant in Lawrence County and a $1 million grant in Delaware County, alongside Job Creation Tax Credits from the Ohio Department of Development.
Accelevation – Miamisburg In Miamisburg, within Sen. Blackshear’s district, JobsOhio has supported Accelevation, a rising star in the race to build the data center infrastructure and turnkey fit-up solutions that bring AI compute online faster. The Dayton Business Journal has named Accelevation the region’s fastest-growing company two years running, citing 400 percent revenue growth over a three-year period. In April 2025, the company cut the ribbon on a new $50 million, 264,000-square-foot manufacturing facility and simultaneously announced plans for an additional 300,000-square-foot facility expected to be completed this year. JobsOhio played a partner role: the company secured its initial 264,000-square-foot footprint through our JobsOhio Site Inventory Program at NorthPoint Development’s First Flight Center in the Miami Valley. Driven by the data center boom, Accelevation has grown from 300 employees to more than 1,100, with a goal of exceeding 2,000 – and our Talent Services team is actively helping them tap recruitment networks, technical-training programs, and relocation support. Westrafo — Trotwood In October 2025, Westrafo, an Italian manufacturer of medium-voltage transformers and integrated energy solutions, opened its first North American manufacturing facility in Trotwood, also in Sen. Blackshear’s district.. The $15 million investment will create 230 full-time local jobs and aims to reach an annual output of 12 gigawatts by 2027 to support modernization of the U.S. electrical grid. Westrafo is actively targeting the data center sector with a specialized line of custom transformers designed for the exact demands of behind-the-meter and microgrid architectures. JobsOhio has provided a $1 million grant and access to our Talent Acquisition Services. AC Green LLC – Athens In Athens – part of Co-Chair Chavez’s home district – AC Green Metalworks, a woman-owned steel and metal fabrication business, has seen demand grow sharply, in part due to strength of data center construction. In late 2023, JobsOhio supported the company’s growth with a $50,000 Small Business Grant. The funds helped support the company’s $810,000 investment in a new building and equipment, retention of nine jobs and potential addition of another nine jobs. It is a reminder that this supply chain reaches small communities and small businesses, not just the largest sites.
Conclusion In conclusion, we applaud this committee’s thoughtful and deliberate approach to collecting information regarding this important industry and advancing policies that will allow Ohio to remain competitive for these investments. JobsOhio affirms prior testimony that has been heard by the committee, which has outlined the benefits that these investments can bring to our state. We recognize that policymakers are appropriately examining questions related to energy infrastructure, community impacts, and long-term competitiveness. Those are important discussions. Our perspective is that Ohio's challenge is not whether to engage with this industry, but how to position Ohio to capture its economic benefits while addressing legitimate community and infrastructure considerations.
