The deindustrialization of Boydton, Virginia
Microsoft did not dispute reports that it would spend $1.1 billion on the Boydton data center, and said that “on average, data centers employ tens to several dozen people,” in a mixture of corporate and contracted positions. It declined to let a reporter tour the site.
“They talked about 100 jobs, but it’s a slow process,” said Thomas C. Coleman III, the mayor of Boydton. So far, he says, the biggest impact “has been a couple of lunch tables at the Triangle gas station.”
That is from Quentin Hardy at the NYT.