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Microsoft has ponied up millions of dollars to expand its data storage farm in south Fulton County.

The tech giant paid $6 million in February to acquire nearly 21 acres next to its existing Palmetto data center campus, according to county property deeds.

Bowen Wallace, Microsoft's corporate vice president of data centers in the Americas, told the Atlanta Journal-Constitution in a statement that the land purchase will "support data center construction already under way in the area."

The company's sprawling facilities consist of warehouses filled with rows of computer servers that power our online lives, from storing files to artificial intelligence systems.

They also have become one of the hottest uses for undeveloped real estate in metro Atlanta, with roughly 20 gigantic data center campuses either in development or preparing for sizable expansions across Georgia, mostly near Atlanta, the newspaper noted March 4.

Microsoft's Palmetto data center campus was approved in November 2020, receiving a $14.5 million property tax break from the Development Authority of Fulton County. The project's value was estimated at $420 million and included 250,000 sq. ft. of data center space.

According to previous filings with the Georgia Department of Community Affairs, Microsoft expects the expansion project could grow to 116 acres by 2028.

Microsoft also has ongoing data center projects in East Point and Douglas County.

The Palmetto land acquisition comes amid growing pressure for the tech company to detail the next steps for its 90-acre site in Atlanta's Grove Park neighborhood, where the Microsoft originally planned to build a sprawling office campus and mixed-use development before halting those plans a year ago.

Atlanta Mayor Andre Dickens recently told media outlets he wants Microsoft to soon decide whether to resume its campus plans or allow the city to take the land to build something else.

Data Centers Demand a Lot of Georgia's Electricity

Developers of data centers have described the demand for these facilities as insatiable, and the industry is raising billions of dollars from investors and private equity firms to expand across the country. Their growing prominence across the Peach State, however, has prompted controversy among communities, utilities, and lawmakers.

At the end of February, the Georgia House approved a bill to suspend lucrative sales tax exemptions for equipment housed in data centers over concerns about the pressure these facilities place on power grids. The legislation still needs to pass the state Senate before it goes to Gov. Brian Kemp's desk.

Redmond, Wash.-based Microsoft previously told the Journal-Constitution that incentives are a crucial factor it considers when planning new facilities. However, tax breaks are just one of 35 criteria the company takes into account, a company spokesperson said.

Georgia Power, the state's largest electric utility, is in the process of asking regulators to approve enormous amounts of new electricity-generating capacity — mostly powered by fossil fuels — due in large measure to the vast number of data center projects across the state. The utility's executives have said data centers are responsible for roughly 80 percent of the demand crunch it claims to be facing.

The recent land sale to Microsoft was first reported by the Atlanta Business Chronicle.

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