Amazon announced Monday it will invest $10 billion to build a state-of-the-art data center campus in Montgomery County, Missouri, creating new jobs and funding infrastructure improvements while generating hundreds of millions in tax revenue. The project, which already includes ongoing construction for thousands of servers, aims to support cloud computing services used by millions of Americans daily for remote work, streaming, healthcare records, and financial transactions.

Missouri Gov. Mike Kehoe hailed the investment as “more than a major investment in Missouri’s future,” emphasizing its role in strengthening local infrastructure and economic growth. However, residents have raised concerns about water usage and electricity costs after learning the data center could consume 50 million gallons of water annually through wells drilled 1,500 feet underground—a figure Amazon Cluster Manager Michael Mills countered by noting their usage is “far less than a golf course.”

Kehoe acknowledged opposition but insisted facts outweigh social media narratives: “If you look into the facts rather than just social media on what a data center can do for a community, it’s unbelievable.” Meanwhile, public feedback meetings revealed heightened anxiety over potential impacts on household bills and environmental conditions. Montgomery County commissioners recently approved a tax abatement framework for the project, with Presiding Commissioner Ryan Poston declaring, “Montgomery is going to show the rest of Missouri how to lead.”