Building a single large artificial intelligence data center can generate as much as 3.5 trillion won ($2.5 billion) in production across industries, a legislative analysis found. Each direct hire creates another 2.5 to 4.5 indirect and spillover jobs, and value added by the data center industry generates roughly twice that amount again in other sectors, pointing to broad economic ripple effects.
According to a written response on "the employment, output and value-added effects of data centers" submitted by the National Assembly Research Service to Rep. Hwang Jung-ah of the Democratic Party of Korea, a member of the National Assembly's Science, ICT, Broadcasting and Communications Committee, the service estimated that a single 100-megawatt AI data center could produce output effects of up to 3.5 trillion won.
The research service cited local government investment cases, domestic studies and overseas analyses of the data center industry as the basis for its findings. Busan projected that building a 105-megawatt AI data center with an investment of 1.8 trillion won would generate 3.492 trillion won in production-inducing effects. Cushman & Wakefield, the global commercial real estate firm, calculated that each 100 megawatts of new data center capacity generates about $344 million (approximately 466 billion won) in annual total output in related industries nearby. Conversely, domestic researchers estimated that a failure to smoothly supply 100 megawatts of AI data center capacity would reduce total industrial output by roughly 1.17 trillion to 3.06 trillion won.
The employment effects were also found to be substantial. The research service put the employment multiplier for direct data center hiring at 3.5 to 5.5, meaning each direct hire generates an additional 2.5 to 4.5 indirect and spillover jobs. According to PwC, the U.S. consulting firm, 1,005,080 direct jobs in the U.S. data center industry in 2024 created 4,490,020 indirect and spillover jobs, for a total employment effect of 5,495,100.
The research service put the value-added multiplier for data centers at 3.1. According to PwC, every dollar of value added directly by the U.S. data center industry generated an additional $2.10 in value added in other industries. The labor income multiplier stood at 3.2, with each dollar of labor income at data centers inducing an additional $2.20 in labor income elsewhere.
Tax revenue linked to the U.S. data center industry rose 24% to $204.4 billion in 2024 from $164.7 billion in 2023. In California alone, the figure reached $14.1 billion, enough to cover more than a fifth of the state's higher education spending. That suggests data center tax revenue can contribute significantly as a major source of income for local governments.
Still, the analysis noted that the spread of data centers could push up local electricity bills. Based on U.S. cases, a 10% increase in revenue would raise electricity bills by 0.09%, or about 90 won on a bill of 100,000 won.
"AI data centers amount to building a new advanced industrial complex for the AI era," Hwang said. "As data centers evolve from what were essentially server rooms into active gigawatt-scale AI factories, the effects on output and regional growth are expected to grow stronger." She added: "We need to move quickly on the three mega projects, which can deliver four benefits at once including tax revenue for local governments, to drive balanced growth. The government must boldly clear the bottlenecks facing industry."
