SAN ANTONIO, TEXAS (January 18, 2007) NEWS RELEASE from The City of San Antonio

City of San Antonio and Bexar County officials announced today that Microsoft Corporation, pending all approvals, plans to invest $550 million to build a new data center in northwest San Antonio.  The 400,000 square-foot facility is expected to have a net fiscal benefit to the city of more than $20 million over the next 20 years and enhance San Antonio's growing information technology industry sector.

The "next generation" data center is expected to house large-scale, worldwide web services for Microsoft's online services business.  Once the center is completed, Microsoft plans to create 75 full-time jobs paying an average annual wage of up to $70,000.  Microsft's use of electricity from CPS Energy is also expected to generate more than $1.4 million annually in revenue to the City. 

The Microsoft project further establishes San Antonio as a preferred location for major data centers.  Data centers tend to cluster within a particular region.  A Lowe's data center also is currently under construction in northwest San Antonio.

The information technology industry employs more than 12,000 people in San Antonio with annual wages of more than $43,000.  The annual economic impact of the IT industry is more than $3.4 billion or seven percent of the local economy.