Data Centers – Driving Growth Throughout the Show-Me State

Data centers: Driving growth throughout the Show-Me State

Missouri's data center industry is a critical contributor to the state's economic growth and development

While Google's recent announcement in Montgomery County seemed to shine a bright light on data centers in Missouri, these types of infrastructure projects are not new to the Show-Me State. In fact, several large and small-scale data centers have been operating for years throughout Missouri. According to the Missouri Department of Natural Resources (DNR), "there were roughly 50 data centers established in Missouri by the 2020s."

DNR reports data centers have been operating in Missouri since the early 2000s.

Data centers do more than just support artificial intelligence and cloud computing; they enable industry operations in education, health care, public safety and more. Additionally, data centers have a significant impact on the state's economy and labor market. In 2024, the Data Center Coalition reported Missouri's data center industry directly supported more than 22,600 jobs. The impact on the state’s 2024 job market grew to more than 85,200 when both direct and indirect jobs were considered. Overall, jobs in and around Missouri’s data center industry contributed more than $7.5 billion in labor income in 2024.

Outside of jobs, the data center industry is an important driver of the state's economy. In 2024, data centers provided more than $13.3 billion to the state's GDP, marking a 10% increase over the previous year. From a tax perspective, the industry supplied more than $1.1 billion in tax revenue to state and local governments throughout Missouri in 2024.

These economic trends are one of the many reasons why elected officials are supporting these types of infrastructure projects. Following Google's recent announcement of a data center in New Florence, one local official said the $15 billion infrastructure investment is a transformational opportunity for his community.

“We are proud to welcome Google’s investment in our community,” said Ryan Poston, presiding commissioner of Montgomery County. “This project represents a major step forward in economic development — driving job creation, expanding our tax base to help reduce property tax for local citizens and creating resilient long-term growth for Montgomery County. It’s a clear example of what strong partnerships can accomplish.”

Outside of Missouri, data centers are having a similar effect on the country's economy. According to a study by PwC, the data center industry contributed nearly $927 billion to the United States' GDP in 2024. From a tax perspective, the same study reported data centers generated more than $204 billion in tax revenue for local, state and federal governments throughout the country in the same year. 

To learn more about Ameren Missouri's plan to responsibly serve data centers through the Powering Missouri Growth Plan, please visit Ameren.com/PoweringMissouriGrowth. Containing strict consumer protection measures, the company's plan to support large data centers requires these customers to pay upfront 100% of all costs associated with hooking up to the energy grid. Even if they use less energy than expected, the plan requires these large customers to pay a minimum monthly demand change of at least 80% of their maximum requested electric demand. The plan stems from 2025's Senate Bill 4, passed by the Missouri General Assembly and signed into law by the governor.