$79 billion invested since 2020. xAI, Amazon and Aluminum Dynamics chose Mississippi over anywhere on earth. What changed was never the soil — it was the rules we chose to live by.
The longer I live in Mississippi, the more I love it here.
For decades, elite coastal opinion thought little of this state – if at all. The Magnolia State, in their movies and in their mindset, was a place to be pitied and patronized — to be talked about but never to. They were quite sure they knew what this state was, and what it would always be.
They were wrong. Mississippi is part of the Boom Belt — and some of those coastal elites would do well to sit up and pay attention to the great things happening here.
Stop and ask why
Since 2020, some $79 billion has been invested in this state. This year — 2026 — is already the biggest on record, and it isn't close. And the names now choosing to build here are names that could build anywhere on earth: Elon Musk's xAI, Amazon, Aluminum Dynamics. They looked at the entire planet, and they chose Mississippi.
Stop and ask why. The laws of physics are no different here than in California; nor is the air, or the water. What changed was not the ground beneath our feet. It was the rules we chose to live by.
Look, too, at the company we now keep. We build more cars per person than Germany. Our children read better than the children of California. On GDP per person, we have overtaken Britain — my native country, which is no small thing for me to sit and write. The state they wrote off is now out-performing some of the richest places on earth.
And the momentum is ours. Inward investment is growing three times faster than New York's. Our unemployment is lower than Florida's. We are growing faster than Tennessee. This is not a state struggling to catch up. It is a state pulling away.
None of this happened by magic
None of this happened by accident, and none of it happened by magic. Mississippi did the hard things. We cut taxes, and set the state on the road to abolishing the income tax altogether. We gave parents a real say in their children's education. We cleared away the rules that once told people they couldn't work, couldn't build, couldn't try.
That is the whole argument, gathered in one place. Get government out of the way; trust free people; and watch what they do. It is the oldest idea in the American story — that prosperity is simply what happens when ordinary men and women are left free to build it — and Mississippi has just proved it true all over again.
You only have to ask why xAI is rising here, and not in the state Elon left, to see it. The genius was never in the soil. It was in the decision to let people keep more of what they earn, and to stop standing in their way.
I've put the whole story — the numbers, and an interactive map of every major project — at mississippiwins.com. Take a look. Then send it to someone who still believes they know what Mississippi is.
My own regret? Only that I made my way to Mississippi five years ago, and so missed so much of the story that came before.
The state they should be copying
We are not the state they wrote off anymore. We are the one they should be copying.
Douglas Carswell is the President and CEO of the Mississippi Center for Public Policy.
21 comments:
You have been a part of the MS Boom.
Puffery. We're so far behind that we'll never catch up. Why don't you compare $$ investments in other states with Mississippi?
AI Surveilance Centers will one day be burned to the ground for the same reasons they're choppping down Flock Cameras. It's truly astounding how many people are literally frogs in a slow boiling pot...falling asleep until it's too late.
We are part of the palm greasing belt.
At some point you're so far behind you are in the lead!
KF, you know the haters of this state that live here, for some reason, are going to angry the state progresses in any way. Post like this stir them up.
Dam Louisiana had 150 this year!
This guy is delusional. While there are some new developments and some major companies have brought some work here, it does little to lift anyone out of the poverty that is everywhere.
Mississippi still has brain drain as the best and brightest leave the state for better educations and career opportunities.
Mississippi remains at the top for obesity and ignorance.
Yep. It is as if they would prefer no new investments in Mississippi. Mississippi will not attract the global headquarters of major corporations like Florida or Texas are drawing from California and. New York, but that is true about most states other than Florida and Texas. But the state is attracting new investments. You have to start somewhere. We have a small population, are more rural than some states, and are starting from further behind. But it seems progress is being made. That is a good thing. But some can’t do anything but whine and complain, and criticize.
Republicans in Mississippi refuse to admit their failures... The one question they can't answer why a state is losing population under its leadership. Men lie women lie, census numbers don't....
Not true. You've likely never lived outside of Mississippi, and just love it because you're supposed to....like an alcoholic Uncle. Mississippi is a shit show - stem to stern, and corrupt to the bone.
Yes, I agree. If you are a white male, embedded in the leadership of the Republican Party as a MAGA nut, Mississippi is a great place to live.
Anyone in the job market would disagree that the state is thriving. I’m sure some people are making off well, but the majority of us are not. Maybe this article would work better for a national market where the readers don’t know first hand the state of things down here.
7:05, name a few states without problems. I have lived in other states besides MS, including overseas. If you think this is the only state with issues, you are delusional. Why don’t you help change the corruption in this state? Why don’t you run for office and show us all how you would change it. Or, you can bitch about things and feel better you said your peace. I do my part to make the state better, why not join us instead of complaining?
This is an absolute joke. Is there a SINGLE Fortune 500 company in this state? All the best students LEAVE for better educations and a MUCH better quality of life.
If you think you are in some sort of great place to live because your crappy little town has a Dollar General, then you are part of the problem.
Hell, even Oxford, the supposed "God's Country" of Mississippi doesn’t t even have a Target. People in this state are delusional.
"Mississippi Rich" is Florida and Alabama middle class.
Dollar General, Dollar Tree, Family Dollar.
Some places even have two of them and a tattoo place to spend your car title loan!
@11:11 do you mean Fortune 500 company headquarters in Mississippi because there are several Fortune 500 manufacturing facilities Toyota (Blue Springs plant, Corolla production), Nissan (Canton assembly plant), Chevron (Pascagoula refinery, one of the largest in the US), Continental Tire (Clinton plant)
If you think having data centers is a flex, keep in mind at last count Virginia has almost 700.
They’re a flex for corrupt politicians and stupid people.
"Stop and ask why" Easy answer they want cheap natural resources in places that are too dumb to know they are being exploited for their cheap natural resources and believe that these big companies just fell in love with our biscuits...
If the pols and "economic development" folks hadn't told so many outright lies about the economic benefits of data centers, there's at least a chance folks wouldn't be so outraged over them. It's as simple, as it often is, as personal interactions: if someone wildly over-promises another person the benefits, and then reality produces a much smaller benefit, the person promised feels slighted and cheated, but if that same person had been UNDER-promised and got the exact same benefit, they would feel great. When the pols and ED people promised $10-20-50-100 billion in "investment" and that isn't reality, but there is some net benefit, people feel pissed, cheated, and lied-to. The pissed and cheated is subjective, but the lied-to is objective and real because they were lied to.
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