Megan McCarty Carino

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States are lining up to give tax cuts to data centers.

From American Public Media, this is Marketplace Tech.

I'm Megan McCarty Carino.

Tech giants are estimated to have spent almost $400 billion in capital expenditures this year, mostly to build data centers for AI.

Just one of these massive facilities can have a price tag in the billions of dollars, and many states want in on that spending spree.

37 states have some sort of incentive program to attract data centers with the hope of bringing a boost to their local economies.

They're giving away hundreds of millions in tax exemptions, according to the National Conference of State Legislatures.

Many of these policies predated the AI boom, but the current data center frenzy has intensified the competition and concerns about whether states will see a payoff.

We spoke with Nicholas Miller, policy associate at NCSL, to learn more.

And so among those, which are sort of the most attractive and what states are sort of going the hardest on this?

And so what do states get out of these deals?

What are they asking for in return?

We'll be right back.

You're listening to Marketplace Tech.

I'm Megan McCarty Carino.