What Georgia Is Spending, What Georgia Is Getting: A Statewide Data Center Report
Georgia built the second-largest data center market in the United States without ever deciding to.
Georgia built the second-largest data center market in the United States without ever deciding to. No statewide siting law governs where the facilities go; no statewide assessment weighs their water or power draw; the one bill that would have paused the central subsidy passed both chambers in 2024 and was vetoed. This report assembles the fiscal, grid, and local records into a single account of what the build-out costs Georgia and what it returns. The sales-and-use tax exemption (O.C.G.A. § 48-8-3(68.1)) waived an estimated $450.6 million in 2024, rising toward $866.7 million by 2030, and the state's own Carl Vinson Institute evaluation found the program's net fiscal impact negative every year and revised the share of activity actually caused by the exemption from 90 percent down to 30 percent. Georgia Power's projected new-generation need rose from about 400 MW (2022) to 8,500 MW (2025), overwhelmingly attributed to data centers; the Public Service Commission certified roughly 9,985 MW in December 2025, about 80 percent tied to data center demand and most of it gas, while residential customers absorbed six rate increases totaling about $43 a month. With the state silent, local government became the siting authority by default: by June 2026, 32 counties and 21 cities had adopted or drafted data center ordinances or moratoria. The volume tests the industry's case on its own terms and sets Georgia against Virginia and the national field. Independent and built entirely from public sources; every figure traced to a primary document.