Dallas-based Compass Datacenters, a multinational data center developer, is locating its next hyperscale data center campus in Meridian, according to Gov. Tate Reeves, who announced the project at the Mississippi Economic Council’s Capital Day Thursday.

The campus will consist of eight data centers that will be constructed over an eight-year period.Upon occupancy, Compass Datacenters’ campus will represent an investment of $10 billion, including future tenants’ information technology equipment. The campus also will create thousands of direct and indirect jobs. Compass Datacenters builds single-tenant, hyperscale data center campuses. The large-scale campuses built by Compass are designed to last for more than 100 years and create economies of scale to support local businesses and jobs.

The Amazon impact: Industry looks at MS differently after AWS announcement. What can follow?

Can Madison County hang on to Nissan? 2025 poses development opportunities, challenges

Mississippi Development Authority is providing assistance for site preparation. MDA also will certify Compass Datacenters as a data center operator, which will provide the company with 10-year state income and franchise tax exemptions, as well as a sales and use tax exemption on construction materials, equipment and software and hardware replacements.

The city of Meridian, Lauderdale County, and electrical utility provider Mississippi Power Company also are assisting with the project. Mississippi Power will supply approximately 500 megawatts of power to the facility. 

Ross Reily is a writer for the Clarion Ledger, part of the USA TODAY Network. He can be reached at rreily@gannett.com or 601-573-2952. You can follow him on the X platform, formerly known as Twitter @GreenOkra1.

FAYETTEVILLE, Ark. (AP) — Malik Dia scored 21 points to lead No. 23 Mississippi to a 73-66 win over Arkansas on Wednesday night, the Rebels’ first win in Fayetteville since 2015.

Sean Pedulla scored 16 and Dre Davis 10. Pedulla and Dia made back-to-back buckets with less than nine minutes left to build Ole Miss’ lead to double digits after Arkansas (11-4, 0-2 Southeastern Conference) had cut it to six.

Adou Thiero led the Razorbacks with 17 points on 7-of-12 shooting. The rest of the Arkansas team shot just 32%.

Dia, Pedulla and Davis scored 14 straight points for the Rebels (13-2, 2-0) over a five-minute stretch midway through the second, outscoring the Hogs over that span by four to keep the lead at double digits.

The Razorbacks, who fell out of the Top 25 last week after a loss at Tennessee, have started 0-2 in league play for the second straight season.

Takeaways

Arkansas’ NCAA Tournament hole may be large by the end of the week as ninth-ranked Florida visits Bud Walton Arena on Saturday.

The Rebels are 2-0 in the SEC for the first time since 2019, which is also the last time the Rebels made the NCAA Tournament. They look the part of returning in 2025.

Key moment

Ole Miss’ 17-7 run over the first 5:37 of the second half was precisely what the Rebels needed to get out of Arkansas with a win.

Key stat

Shooting doomed the Razorbacks. Arkansas shot just 22% from 3-point range to Ole Miss’ 39% and the Razorbacks’ leading scorer on the season, Boogie Fland, went just 5 of 20 from the floor for 14 points.

Up next

Ole Miss hosts LSU on Saturday.

Arkansas hosts No. 8 Florida on Saturday.

___

Get poll alerts and updates on the AP Top 25 throughout the season. Sign up here. AP college basketball: https://apnews.com/hub/ap-top-25-college-basketball-poll and https://apnews.com/hub/college-basketball

JACKSON, Miss. (WLBT) – The Mississippi State Department of Health held its first meeting of 2025 on Wednesday, during which it also announced an achievement.

At the state board meeting, the department discussed scheduled items on the agenda and heard from MSDH State Health Officer Dr. Dan Edney.

Edney briefed the state board on current health concerns such as a nationwide increase in cases of pertussis.

Edney also briefed the board on legislative priorities for the upcoming year.

And after an 18-month process, the Mississippi State Department of Health has officially achieved full reaccreditation status.

Edney expressed his gratitude to the MSDH staff and others in attendance.

“The fact that our hard work does not go unrecognized and objectively measured evidence is very important to me,” said Edney.

According to Edney, the reaccreditation status is objective evidence that MSDH is confident in what they do and more than confident that they excel in what they do.

Want more WLBT news in your inbox? Click here to subscribe to our newsletter.

See a spelling or grammar error in our story? Please click here to report it and include the headline of the story in your email.

Copyright 2025 WLBT. All rights reserved.