AWS Bridgefield Tech Center (Ashburn) data center, Ashburn, Virginia

George Washington University sold its Ashburn campus in Loudoun County, Virginia, the Virginia Science and Technology Campus, to Amazon Data Services for a data center project, in a sale of $427.3 million that closed on March 2, 2026. Amazon filed a site plan on July 28, 2026 for what it calls the Bridgefield Tech Center: four two-story data center buildings and three parking garages totaling more than 800,000 square feet, proposed under a 1972 zoning ordinance that would let the project skip Planning Commission review and public hearings.

On July 30, 2026, the county's zoning administrator, Teresa Miller, ruled that an older policy treating data centers as office uses was obsolete, a step that could affect Amazon's by-right claim. Loudoun supervisor Juli Briskman opposed the plan, saying it would be "a profound loss for our community," and vowed to fight it because it sits too close to homes, Bles Park and the Potomac River. Resident Miriam Musau said of the data centers: "They are invading and making this area like a concrete jungle."

Loudoun's economic development director, Buddy Rizer, a longtime supporter of data center growth, said in March 2026 the campus was never an area the county anticipated for data centers. Supervisors voted 6-1 in July 2026 to study a temporary pause on new data center applications, and on September 15, 2026 the board voted 7-1-1 to direct staff to draft a resolution pausing new applications for up to 12 months; the pause is not yet in force. County staff are due to bring a formal resolution memorializing the pause to the board's October 20, 2026 meeting.

Amazon has said construction would not start until GW has fully left the campus, and it noted it has paid more than $2.1 billion in property taxes and fees in Loudoun County since 2016.