Amazon Web Services plans to build a new East Coast campus in Northern Virginia, in the same general area that hosts its sprawling U.S. East datacenter operations, the governor of Virginia announced Thursday
Details on the project were scarce: a press release said the expansion of Amazon Web Services’ presence in Northern Virginia would create up to 1,500 new jobs, but it wasn’t clear if AWS has actually committed to hire than many people or if that’s just what local officials are hoping. Amazon employs 7,000 people in Northern Virginia, the governor’s office said, and it’s likely that most of that number includes folks working for AWS.
It’s also not clear if the project involves a new data center or just office space. An AWS representative declined to comment.
Amazon’s U.S. East operation dates back to the very inception of AWS itself, and over the last few years it has been showing its age. AWS has opened data centers around the world since launching in 2006, but is believed to rely on U.S. East data centers for a lot of its service.
Virginia said it won a competition for the project over Texas and Amazon’s home state of Washington. The Fairfax County Economic Development Authority said the campus will be located in “the Herndon area,” which is already home to some AWS operations.
