(KNSI) – A technology giant is expanding its footprint in central Minnesota.
Microsoft has signed a deal with an affiliate of Xcel Energy for 295 acres of land near the Sherco plant. The final price was $17.7 million. The utility subsequently announced that the land would be used for a new data center.
This is a welcome turnaround for Xcel, which remained committed to selling land even after Google backed out of a purchase near a coal-fired power plant scheduled for late 2022.
Microsoft has not yet announced details about its plans for the site. Data center dynamics The company also says it has received the green light to build its third and fourth data centers in West Des Moines, Iowa.
As the Midwest attracts more technology investment, Minnesota and Becker State could build additional data centers near Sharco. According to the article, Elk River Technologies is in talks with Excel for the 348-acre facility. Elk River is a shell company, and it is currently unclear what major companies it is connected to.
Data centers house computer systems. Microsoft is a major player in the cloud space. The company created OneDrive for consumers. This includes popular Office 365 product lines such as Word, Excel, and PowerPoint. Its enterprise or business cloud service is called Azure. Like Amazon, it is one of the fastest growing segments of the company.
Cloud services allow applications to be located offsite, rather than in a person’s home or a separate corporate office. Everything is moved to a huge centralized location.
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