October 31, 2024--Researched by Industrial Info Resources (Sugar Land, Texas)--With billions of dollars' worth of data centers in operation or under construction throughout the U.S., Microsoft Corporation (NASDAQ:MSFT) (Redmond, Washington) doesn't appear to be slowing its construction streak, this week announcing that it would make an initial investment of $1 billion in three data centers in Licking County, Ohio, to support its Azure cloud platform. The Greater Columbus area where the data centers are located has become somewhat of a hotspot for the energy-intensive facilities, with e-commerce giant Amazon.com Incorporated (NASDAQ:AMZN) (Seattle, Washington) also planning a large campus near one of the Microsoft locations. The influx of power-hungry data centers is causing Ohio utility American Electric Power (NASDAQ:AEP) (AEP) (Columbus, Ohio) to propose agreements with the data providers regarding funding for the increased infrastructure that will be needed to power the facilities.

Other companies featured: Meta Platforms Incorporated (NASDAQ:META)