Amazon Data Services bought George Washington University’s Science and Technology Campus in Ashburn, Virginia. Here’s what you need to know.

According to northernvirginiamag.com, on Feb. 27, George Washington University (GWU) President Dr. Ellen M. Granberg announced the sale of GWU’s Virginia Science and Technology Campus in Ashburn, Virginia.  The buyer was none other than Amazon Data Services.

Based on real estate records, Amazon bought the 122-acre property for around $3.5 million per acre. Therefore, the final offering price was an unknown number above $427 million, according to an article published by northernvirginiamag.com.

While Granberg did not officially state the buyer or sale price, a spokesperson named Julia Garbitt confirmed the previously mentioned details on GWU’s student newspaper, the Hatchet. Additionally, Granberg said that the purchase was under “very favorable terms for the university.”

Granberg also said that the university’s goal throughout the transition is to support “the people most impacted.” As such, GW will keep the option of maintaining the former program’s availability open to students for up to five years.

According to a message posted on president.gwu.edu, GW university has been dealing with “pressures on GW’s FY26 budget.” This included hypothetical negative impacts to federal funding, making their deal with Amazon increasingly necessary.

The significance of Amazon’s move in buying GW’s Virginia Science and Technology Campus is to transform the property into a data or information technology center to support the growth of AI and cloud infrastructure, as reported in QZ.com and citybiz.co. 

The purchase of GW’s Virginia Science and Technology Campus aligns with Amazon’s long term goal of investing up to $35 billion in Northern Virginia by 2040, as additionally according to citybiz.co.