Data centers in Georgia did not produce the same high payback in exchange for nearly half a billion dollars in tax breaks as reported by state auditors last month, according to a correction issued Wednesday.
In a report first released on Christmas Eve, the Georgia Department of Audits and Accounts said the state effectively gave away $474 million in the fiscal year that ended in July by exempting data centers from some taxes.
In exchange, auditors said, data centers created 28,350 construction-related jobs in 2025, adding $3.4 billion to the state economy. And they created another 5,471 data center operations jobs, for an additional $823 million injection into the state economy.
But on Wednesday, the state agency revised those numbers. Data centers produced less than a third as many jobs and less than a third as much economic value, they wrote in a summary of a full report by the Carl Vinson Institute of Government at the University of Georgia.
Data centers actually produced 8,505 construction jobs that added $1 billion to the economy and 1,641 operations jobs for another $247 million added.
There was no explanation for the error. The table with the employment and value numbers in the underlying Carl Vinson report that was linked to the corrected release still contained the same figures as the December version.
Data centers have become controversial due to their demands on water and power infrastructure.
Last month, the state Public Service Commission approved a nearly 10-gigawatt expansion request by Georgia Power to supply current and anticipated demand by the centers, which are powering the development of artificial intelligence as well as traditional internet services.
“If there’s one thing I’ve learned from a career in journalism, it’s that the truth has a funny way of making everyone equally uncomfortable.”
