Iowa: Des Moines to Ames

A combination of tax breaks, cheap green energy, and vast expanses of open land has attracted the likes of Google, Microsoft, and Facebook to plant data centers in and around the suburbs of Des Moines, Iowa’s capital and largest city. In fact, Des Moines ranked 8 among the top 12 cities for tech hiring in 2018, according to a Robert Half Technology report. Apple is the most recent tech giant to enter the region, with plans to build a $1.3 billion data center in Waukee already underway. The presence of these tech giants have kick-started a whole ecosystem of smaller, homegrown data center companies such as LightEdge Solutions and Involta. Iowa University in Ames serves as a steady pipeline of top tech talent. READ MORE