Giant economic development deals took spotlight in 2025

In 2025, data centers took off in Virginia, and not just in Loudoun County. Seeking swathes of open land and more permissive zoning regulations, developers announced giant, multibillion-dollar campuses in Central Virginia last year.

Topping the list is the $17 billion EdgeCore Digital Infrastructure campus in Louisa County, followed by CleanArc Data Centers’ $3 billion project in Caroline County and Vantage Data Centers’ $2.25 billion Stafford County project.

Meanwhile, pharmaceutical companies made significant forays into Central Virginia and the Shenandoah Valley, with AstraZeneca, Merck & Co. and Eli Lilly & Co. all announcing billion-dollar manufacturing plants within a few weeks of each other last fall, adding to earlier manufacturing wins in the past three years.

This was good news for Virginia’s business community, as well as a silver lining for the state’s fortunes, which took a significant hit from federal workforce and contract cuts. According to Old Dominion University’s State of the Commonwealth economic report issued at the end of the year, the number of Virginia residents working for the federal government declined from 196,700 in December 2024 to 185,200 in August 2025. Meanwhile, tariffs slowed trade through the Port of Virginia by 8.7% between the second quarter of 2024 and Q2 2025. As of November 2025, the unemployment rate was 3.5% in Virginia, compared with 2.9% the same time in 2024.

In a late 2025 interview, Chris Saxman, executive director of Virginia FREE and a former Republican state delegate, called the 2026 state budget outlook the worst he’d seen in 10 years, anticipating as much as a $7 billion hole related to the loss of SNAP and other federal funding. This makes data centers one of the only games in town for economic growth, Saxman argued.

However, roiling discontent in Northern Virginia about data centers — especially massive campuses built to handle increased AI use and digital traffic — has started to spread to other localities over concerns about electricity demands, overall costs and few associated jobs, as well as potential noise and air pollution. State legislators and county elected officials have taken action to rein in the industry, although the state had not passed any significant data center limits as of early 2026.

Meanwhile, a major data center project proposed in Chesapeake, which would have been the city’s first, was voted down by its city council in June 2025, and developer Diode Ventures pulled its massive campus plan from consideration in Charles City County last August, after receiving significant community pushback.

In essence, developers seek land already zoned for industrial use and with reliable access to electrical power. Today that means looking in southern and western Virginia, as well as in other states, Oasis Digital Properties co-founder Ross Litkenhous said in a February feature in Virginia Business. His company has purchased a 700-acre site in Alabama, he noted.

Biotech — specifically pharmaceutical manufacturing — also has been a bright spot in the past year. AstraZeneca’s $4 billion project in Albemarle County, announced in October 2025, is expected to create 500 jobs, and Lilly’s $2.149 billion ingredient manufacturing plant in Goochland County is set to create 468 jobs. Merck, already with a major foothold in Rockingham County, intends to expand its presence with a $1.98 billion expansion, creating an expected 168 jobs.

Gov. Abigail Spanberger said before taking office that she aims to return Virginia to the top of CNBC’s Top States for Business rankings, where it fell to fourth in 2025, and will continue working to recruit pharma businesses and investment to the state, as well as encouraging tech growth in Virginia, particularly in the defense and intelligence space.

Also, she noted in a Virginia Business interview, “it is making sure we are prioritizing housing affordability, housing supply in communities where there are jobs and quality schools … ensuring that we are creating a workforce that is ready.”