Amazon’s profitable cloud business will invest roughly $7.8 billion dollars by the end of 2029 to expand its data center operations in central Ohio, state leaders announced…further advancing the state’s efforts to establish itself as the Midwest’s technology hub. AWS launched its first data centers in the region in 2016 and currently operates campuses in two counties in central Ohio, home to the capital city of Columbus. The cloud computing company is now responsible for the second largest private sector investment in the state’s history, behind only the $20 billion dollar chip plant announced by Intel last year. Facebook and Google also operate Ohio data centers. Also underway in the region are a $3.5 billion dollar battery plant…built by Honda and LG Energy Solution of South Korea…along with a new $110 million dollar Center for Software Innovation at Ohio State University.