The state of Mississippi is accelerating its status as a hotbed for innovation and high-tech development thanks to several “stars” aligning—including Mississippi State University.
Leaders from the university, Mississippi Power, Mississippi Development Authority, East Mississippi Business Development Corporation, and Gov. Tate Reeves Tuesday [Jan. 28] welcomed Compass Datacenters to East Mississippi. All were at MSU-Meridian’s Riley Center during the EMBDC annual meeting and took part in the international company’s groundbreaking on the outskirts of the Queen City.
The hyperscale campus, which will include eight data centers completed in an eight-year timeframe, will house computing and network infrastructure to support large, tech-intensive companies.
MSU President Mark E. Keenum said, “What Compass Datacenters is planning to do here in this community is going to have an incredible statewide impact as well. I’m looking forward to seeing a lot of our Mississippi State graduates work for Compass and the many other companies we are going to see as a result of this investment. Preparing students for these jobs is what we’re all about at Mississippi State University.”
The announcement of Compass’ decision to build in Meridian follows news from last spring of Amazon Web Services constructing multiple data center complexes in Madison County. The Compass and Amazon projects are the largest investments for the state in history at $10 billion each.
MSU broke ground in spring 2023 on its new High Performance Computing Data Center as the land-grant research institution constructs its second facility increasing its capabilities as the fourth fastest U.S. academic supercomputing site. The university also is a partner in the new Mississippi Cyber and Technology Center being constructed at Keesler Air Force Base in Biloxi as a national hub for cybersecurity training, support and research.