COLUMBUS, OHIO
Active Infrastructure’s leadership was instrumental in siting and negotiating the first hyperscale data center campus in Columbus, Ohio in 2014, collaborating with then-Governor Kasich, Jobs Ohio, and Columbus 2020 (now One Columbus). Today, Columbus is one of the top hyperscale data center markets in the United States.
Latency
With more than a dozen Fortune 500 companies headquartered in Columbus in addition to The Ohio State University, there has been a tremendous investment in fiber optic cables over the past two decades, including a fiber ring that surrounds the city. Columbus’s network connectivity provides low latency to other data center hubs across the country, including Atlanta, Boston, Chicago, Dallas and Northern Virginia.
Taxes & Incentives
Ohio has one of the most aggressive incentive policies and favorable tax structures in the United States, making it highly attractive to data centers. Ohio does not levy a tax on tangible personal property, including computer servers, software, hardware, and racking equipment. Its data center sales tax exemption offers a ten-year exemption on data center-related materials, equipment, and infrastructure in exchange for an investment of at least $100 million or more in a three-year period and a total annual payroll greater than $1.5 million. In addition to the data center sales tax exemption, there is no personal property tax on data center equipment in Ohio, making it highly attractive for capital-intensive data center projects. Jobs Ohio and One Columbus are the state and local economic development agencies responsible for creating and growing the hyperscale data center and big tech presence in the Columbus region.