Oregon's big data center scandal is happening in one of the state's smallest communities

When one of the world’s biggest technology companies set up shop in one of Oregon’s smallest counties, it turned to a tiny fiber-optic provider to connect its data centers to the internet. The obscure nonprofit was founded two decades earlier to hook up Morrow County schools and hospitals to the information superhighway. Suddenly, it found itself providing the same service to Amazon. Amazon has spent more than $8 billion over the past 10 years building four hulking, windowless server farms along the Columbia River at the Port of Morrow. Civic officials lured Amazon with tax breaks worth nearly $50 million a year, a bonanza for one of the world’s wealthiest companies from a community with just 12,000 residents. And a bonanza for a few of the public officials, too, as it turned out. Read more: https://www.oregonlive.com/silicon-forest/2026/07/oregon-doj-levies-fresh-allegations-over-local-officials-data-center-scheme.html https://www.oregonlive.com/silicon-forest/2026/03/amazon-paid-oregon-officials-company-more-than-100-million-while-seeking-data-center-deals.html • Subscribe to our YouTube channel: https://www.youtube.com/subscription_center?add_user=oregoniannews • Get the latest news and more at The Oregonian/OregonLive: http://www.oregonlive.com/ • Subscribe to The Oregonian/OregonLive: https://www.oregonlive.com/subscribe/ • Follow us on TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@theoregonian?lang=en • Follow us on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/theoregonian/ • Like us on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/theoregonian/ • Follow us on X: https://x.com/Oregonian • Subscribe to our newsletters: https://link.oregonlive.com/join/6fk/signup • Listen to our podcasts: https://www.oregonlive.com/podcasts/