Microsoft to spend big on new data centre

The company behind a US$700 million project to build a data centre in West Des Moines, Iowa, has been revealed as Microsoft, according to media reports.

The Des Moines Register reports Microsoft will get some US$20 million (A$21.7 million) in tax credits via the Iowa Development Authority Board for erecting the "Project Mountain" data centre that will support Xbox Live and Office 365.

Iowa has seen several large-scale data centres sprout out of the ground recently. Microsoft has had a facility in West Des Moines since 2012 and in April this year, Facebook said it would build a new data centre in Altoona with 130,000 square metres of floor space.

Other technology companies with a presence in the mid-western state include IBM and Google, which have both invested over a billion US dollars each. All in all, Microsoft's investment in Iowa is close to a billion US dollars, with a further 36 people expected to be hired on top of an existing fifty staffers.

Tax credits and cheap and reliable energy are lures for large tech companies to come and set up shop, Iowa's state development director Debi Durham told the Des Moines Register.

Iowa also has a low risk of natural disasters and has access to national fibre optic network backbones running along the motorways in the state.