As giant companies like Amazon and Microsoft make moves to build data centers in St. Joseph County, one local company is looking to keep up thanks to an unorthodox development deal with the city of South Bend.
One of the first companies to set up shop at Ignition Park, Aunalytics is a local data analytics firm looking to expand its footprint.
South Bend’s redevelopment commission in May gave Aunalytics a $1.5 million loan to build a new data center and server farm in Ignition Park. Public documents say Aunalytics is committing $8.5 million in private investment for the first phase of the project and future phases could include more buildup of the company’s computing capabilities in the coming years.
Instead of paying the city back for the loan, Aunalytics is agreeing to create 25 full-time jobs and to offer 20% discounts on AI services to local companies until the sum of the discounts hits $1.5 million.
Aunalytics representatives did not respond to multiple interview requests from WVPE.
South Bend’s director of community investment Caleb Bauer said the city hasn’t structured a development deal like this before. He feels AI is coming to the region one way or another and the city's goal is to incentivize a local company.
“Our thinking is we want to see a local business that has been a good partner be part of that growth instead of the larger competitors potentially coming in and controlling all of the AI market in our area,” Bauer said.
Aunalytics’s deal with South Bend comes as Amazon moves forward with its massive $11 billion data center in western St. Joseph County. Microsoft recently spent $77 million buying land in Granger for a data center as well.
South Bend's city council also granted Aunalytics around $2.5 million in tax breaks on advanced computing equipment earlier this year.
