FULTON COUNTY, Ga. — The Elon Musk-owned and operated X, the social media company and platform formerly known as Twitter, came to the Development Authority of Fulton County on Tuesday to ask for a $10 million tax break.
The vote by board members approved the request Tuesday afternoon. Meeting records published after show the vote passed 6-2, with Kyle Lamont and Erica Long voting against the proposal.
Specifically, X Corp., as named in its filing, asked the DAFC to give it a $700 million inducement and final bond resolution so it can “acquire, install and create the next generation of high-performance computing and Artificial Intelligence products for the X platform.”
The filing for Tuesday’s meeting estimated X would save $10.125 million over a 10-year period.
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Now awarded, X said it can promise 24 high-paying jobs, 50 additional employees for four unrelated vendors to build a data center and infrastructure for the work site, and a $241.27 million economic impact over 10 years.
The move by X to lean into AI in Atlanta, if successful, would make it the second high-dollar company to try and make the Georgia capital a home for AI endeavors.
Microsoft, which opened a regional headquarters in Atlanta in 2007, surpassed rival tech company Apple on Jan. 11 as the highest-valued public company, though briefly. Reuters reported the increase in share values had been, at least in part, due to its investment in generative AI and its specific work with OpenAI, the maker of ChatGPT.
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X’s filing with DAFC shows it would be placing its proposed office and development location on Jefferson Street in Atlanta.
X said in the filing that while it already has a data center in Atlanta, and another in Portland, receiving the economic incentive from Fulton County would be “a critical part of the analysis and decision process of whether to locate the equipment” here or another location, saying its potential impact locally would be “substantial.”
According to the listed economic benefits, X said it would include $700 million of new capital investment, an overall 10-year economic impact of $241,271,799, the creation of 24 retained jobs and 50 indirect jobs, plus “a commitment to use best efforts to adhere to Develop Fulton’s MFBE policy guidelines.
Aside from the 10-year economic impact, X’s proposal for Tuesday’s DAFC meeting was identical to a previously rejected request in November. In November, X said it expected a $1.09 billion economic impact over 10 years. The change in expected impact was not explained in the document filed ahead of Tuesday’s development authority meeting.
A later filing before the Tuesday meeting reduced the impact to the $241 million estimate. Despite multiple requests for comment to the Development Authority, no specifics were provided for the nearly 80% decrease in estimated economic impact.
With AI development remaining front and center in the tech industry, lawmakers are still working on ways to potentially regulate its use in the public and private spheres. Some legislation currently going through the Georgia General Assembly has to do with use of AI in a variety of business settings, including insurance claim determinations.
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