Byliner

Audi's first U.S. plant is headed to the Middle Georgia Megasite near Macon: about $4.2 billion, 4,500 jobs and average pay above $63,000. Greg Bluestein, Joe Kovac Jr. and Zachary Hansen reconstructed the two-year chase behind it. It started when Gov. Brian Kemp read that Audi wanted a U.S. plant and ran through a "very, very quiet, secretive" February 2025 meeting with CEO Gernot Döllner during the Munich Security Conference, where Georgia pitched a site in Peach County.

The part I'd underline is how close it came to slipping away. Talks stalled at one point, and Georgia kept marketing the site to other prospects. The state had started assembling the 2,400 acres along Ga. 96 in 2022, long before anyone knew who would build there. Incentive figures haven't been released yet, though Georgia's packages for Hyundai and Rivian each topped $1 billion. President Trump credited tariffs when he announced the plant at a Saturday rally. Kemp pointed to speed to market and a site that was ready to go. Anyone holding a megasite that hasn't landed its tenant should read this one for the patience it took.

Follow: Zachary Hansen, Greg Bluestein and Joe Kovac Jr.
Read: The Atlanta Journal-Constitution, "Here's how Georgia leaders recruited Audi's $4.2B plant, its first in the U.S."

Carrier's $600 million-plus manufacturing and engineering center in AllianceTexas made the national wires last week as 1,500 jobs. Gabby Bailey read the city paperwork. Fort Worth approved a seven-year, 60% tax abatement in September, and the jobs Carrier is actually on the hook for are 495 by the end of 2029, at a minimum average salary of $75,000. Miss the investment, job or salary targets and the abatement can be forfeited.

The more-than-1-million-square-foot plant goes next to Wistron and Walmart at 1501 Distribution Drive and is expected to open in 2027. The gap between the headline number and the contract number is normal, and it's the number to watch when the Receipts come due.

Follow: Gabby Bailey
Read: Community Impact, "Carrier Global Corporation plans $600M investment in new Fort Worth site"

AESC's battery plant in Florence County, S.C., has sat unfinished since June 2025, and two outlets came at it from opposite ends this week. At FITSNews, Will Folks wrote that the project is dead, citing anonymous sources and putting public support north of $400 million. Edward E. Bustamante Sr. went to the company. AESC told HERE Florence in a short written statement that it still plans to meet its $1.6 billion commitment, though it gave no date for crews to return and no new hiring schedule.

Local officials said in December that the plant was about 75% complete with roughly $1.2 billion invested, and the company has said 1,600 jobs are still planned once conditions improve. The $22 million training center the state and AESC built on Highway 327 is finished and already being used by other employers, which may be the most useful thing to come out of the deal so far.

Follow: Edward E. Bustamante Sr.
Read: HERE Florence, "AESC Says It Still Backs Its Battery Plant in Florence", and FITSNews, "S.C. Pee Dee Battery Plant: Deader Than a Doornail"

BWXT Advanced Fuels' planned $500 million nuclear fuel plant near Gillette, Wyo., started life as a 150,000- to 250,000-square-foot building. Emma Jane Jackson reports that Rusty Bell of Energy Capital Economic Development now expects something closer to 1 million square feet, possibly filling the county-owned 247-acre Pronghorn Industrial Park. Campbell County commissioners just approved a 12-month access agreement so BWXT can drill test borings, put in groundwater wells and run wildlife and archaeological studies before a purchase agreement.

The state put up $100 million in matching funds. BWXT says the plant will bring more than 200 jobs, has Kairos Power signed as its first customer and expects to break ground in 2028. This is what a site in due diligence looks like from the county side.

Follow: Emma Jane Jackson
Read: Cowboy State Daily, "Campbell County Moves $500 Million Nuclear Fuel Facility Closer To Reality"

GlobalFoundries is planning a second, and possibly third, chip fab in Malta, N.Y., with 1,000 more permanent jobs on top of its current 2,500 and an estimated 27,000 construction jobs. Tom Bosco asked the question every host community eventually gets: can the town handle it? Town Supervisor Cynthia Young says yes, pointing to the roundabouts Malta built with the state and the restaurants that followed the first fab.

Laura Burns of the Greater Capital Association of Realtors named the constraint that keeps coming up in these stories, which is housing. Her group is lobbying federal lawmakers for incentives to spur home construction. Workforce housing belongs in the site plan as much as water and power do.

Follow: Tom Bosco
Read: CBS6 Albany, "New chip fab with 1,000 jobs coming; can Malta handle it?"

For a sense of the scale U.S. chip towns are competing with, Michelle Kim walked Samsung's Pyeongtaek campus in South Korea, which covers roughly the area of Central Park. Three fabs run around the clock, a fourth is coming online, and work on a fifth, halted in the 2024 memory slump, restarted when AI demand took off.

Her best detail is the construction workforce. Thousands of workers are on site, including hundreds of women, many working as spotters for heavy equipment. A 35-year-old safety officer told her she earns 140,000 won, about $97, a day. Samsung expects memory demand to keep rising through 2028, which is the same bet behind every memory fab being courted in the U.S.

Follow: Michelle Kim
Read: MIT Technology Review, "A visit to Samsung's massive new semiconductor hub"

DCIP Group wants about 826 acres near Arcadia, Fla., for natural gas-powered hyperscale data centers. Alice Herman covered two DeSoto County Commission meetings on back-to-back nights. The first rezoning, for about 238 acres, failed on a 2-2 tie after six hours, with one commissioner recused over a possible conflict of interest. The second failed the next night along the same lines.

One commissioner who voted no called the proposal "too massive" while saying the county needs a data center. The planning director flagged that the application had no information on industrial wastewater disposal. The planning commission had recommended denial 4-1, and the county adopted a data center moratorium in July. Developers should treat an application with gaps like that as a vote lost before the meeting starts.

Follow: Alice Herman
Read: Suncoast Searchlight, "DeSoto County rejects data center rezoning, with another vote ahead", and the follow-up on WGCU, "DeSoto data center proposal blocked again Wednesday night"

Two weeks ago, Byliner sent you to Wisconsin's data center NDAs. Steven Walters went back further, to how the state's data center sales tax exemption became law. It rode in as Item 12 of Motion 126, a summary of final budget recommendations that the Joint Finance Committee approved 12-6 along party lines in June 2023. A standalone bill had passed the Assembly the day before and never got a Senate hearing. Fifteen organizations, including utilities and Microsoft, had hired 59 lobbyists.

The 2023 budget summary called the revenue loss "unknown." A Legislative Fiscal Bureau memo this March estimated four data centers built from 2024 to 2028 could cost the state $1.5 billion in sales tax, plus $369 million a year from the electricity exemption. Both candidates for governor now support repeal, and a Marquette Law School poll found 74% of respondents think data center costs outweigh the benefits. It's a useful case study for anyone who may be asked how their own state's incentives got passed.

Follow: Steven Walters
Read: Urban Milwaukee, "The State of Politics: How The Tax Break for Data Centers Was Passed"

North Dakota's Ethics Commission voted unanimously this week to open its own inquiry into the state's Development Fund, the 1991 program that provides gap financing to new businesses through loans and investments. Jack Dura reports it's the commission's first inquiry of this kind in its seven years. It follows an audit of 2019 through 2024 that found missing records for millions of dollars in transactions, job figures reported by borrowers that hadn't been verified and inconsistent conflict-of-interest procedures.

Attorney General Drew Wrigley had declined to investigate, citing a legal conflict and saying no one had presented credible evidence of a crime. Commerce Commissioner Chris Schilken told lawmakers fixes are underway or done and that the problems predate him and Gov. Kelly Armstrong. A day after the vote, the fund's chair and vice chair, Jim Albrecht and Rob Lindberg, resigned, according to KFYR-TV. If your organization counts jobs that borrowers report themselves, this is a good week to check how you verify them.

Follow: Jack Dura
Read: North Dakota Monitor, "North Dakota Ethics Commission to launch inquiry into Development Fund problems"