Georgia is expected to lose $2.5 billion to data center sales tax exemptions in fiscal year 2026, according to the state’s just-updated fiscal projections.
That’s 664% higher than state’s previous estimate of $327 million, a reflection of the speed at which the industry is extracting public money from communities across the country.
“States must stop creating new incentive programs for data centers, and pause existing programs like this one in Georgia, where it is draining billions from other programs and services,” said Kasia Tarczynska, senior research analyst with Good Jobs First. “It is unconscionable that some of the world’s most profitable companies are taking so much from neighborhoods and families.”
Companies led by some of the world’s richest men, including Jeff Bezos’ Amazon, Meta’s Mark Zuckerberg and Elon Musk’s xAI, are some of the biggest recipients of data center tax breaks.
Other states are experiencing huge revenue losses from those subsidies too. Virginia, for example, lost $1.6 billion in FY 2025. Those revenue losses are born not only by state governments, but also by localities that host data centers. In Georgia, $1.1 billion of the $2.5 billion tax revenue loss was to local sales tax exemptions.
These costs don’t include possible power rate hikes for residents, who in many places are expected to help Big Tech access the tremendous energy use required by their facilities. The $2.5 billion also does not include any costs of additional property tax breaks that data centers are getting from localities.
How this compares
The $2.5 billion data center subsidy enjoyed by a select group is significantly more than the $538 million the Technical College System of Georgia received for workforce development and continuing adult education –proven economic development tools.
It is substantially more than the state’s Labor Department FY 2026 budget of $8.9 million (state leaders declined to give a requested increase to modernize the state’s unemployment insurance system). It is also significantly more than the FY 2026 budget of $1.1 billion allocated to the Department of Human Services, which provides services including for the elderly and vulnerable children.
Incredibly, the data center sales tax breaks are expected to be even higher in 2027, at nearly $3 billion, according to the state’s projections.
Data centers would have come to Georgia anyway
Late last year, the Carl Vinson Institute of Government at the University of Georgia released a new audit of the impact of this costly tax break. It found that in FY 2025, data centers were projected to bring in $41 million in tax revenue, while receiving $474 million in tax exemptions — a loss of $433 million.
The audit also found that 70% of data center projects would have located in Georgia even without the subsidy.
Had data center companies (Microsoft, Google, Meta, Amazon and other tech giants have data centers in the state) paid sales taxes in 2025, the resulting revenue would have been enough to create nearly 8,000 public sector jobs in education, healthcare, and public safety, the audit noted.
Georgia’s data center sales and use tax exemption projected tax losses for FY 26 and 27, as published in January 2026
About the source: Good Jobs First is a national policy resource center that promotes corporate and government accountability in economic development. Since 1998, it has fought for reforms to increase transparency around the use of public money used in the name of economic development, and has revealed the numerous ways corporations – many of whom receive subsidies – violate civil and criminal regulations and laws