Jabil is growing its footprint in St. Petersburg again. The city says the electronics manufacturer is building out 67,000 square feet at 9900 18th St. N to expand its local operations, a sign that one of the city's biggest employers is still putting down roots at home even as it chases bigger plays in artificial intelligence.
Jabil is headquartered at 10800 Roosevelt Blvd. N. and operates several other listed sites in St. Petersburg, including locations on 16th Street, Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Street and Roosevelt Boulevard, alongside its global network. The company’s 2025 annual filing lists its St. Petersburg headquarters, while its directory of global entities names the local facilities. That footprint makes the 18th Street project one piece of a broader local presence, not the company’s only area operation.
The news came by way of St. Petersburg, FL
, the city's official account, which called Jabil its “hometown manufacturing giant” in a social post announcing the project. The
Tampa Bay Business Journal
separately reported on the build-out, describing it as new warehouse space for the company.
Part of a Broader AI Push
The warehouse expansion lands as Jabil leans harder into technology-driven growth. Per the Business Journal's reporting, the company has rolled out major initiatives over the past year to expand its AI-related business. That framing echoes an announcement last year, when Jabil said it was planning a $500 million manufacturing facility in the Southeast United States to support its cloud data center business, with a particular emphasis on artificial intelligence, according to the same outlet's sister publication, St. Pete Catalyst.
It is not clear from available information whether the new 18th Street North warehouse is connected to that larger AI-focused buildout or is a separate, more conventional expansion tied to rising customer demand. The city's announcement and the business journal's report each describe the project in general terms, without detailing how it fits into Jabil's wider strategy.
The AI-related investment mentioned above has since moved from site selection to a named location: North Carolina announced in June 2025 that Jabil chose Rowan County for a facility intended to serve cloud and AI data-center customers. The state announcement put the planned investment at about $500 million over several years and projected 1,181 jobs. It also described a state Job Development Investment Grant that could reimburse Jabil up to $11.25 million over 12 years if the company meets investment and hiring targets. The announcement does not identify the St. Petersburg warehouse as part of that project. North Carolina’s project announcement spells out the location and terms.
A History of Growing in Place
This would not be the first time Jabil has chosen to expand rather than relocate. The company previously moved to grow operations at its existing site near Roosevelt Boulevard and Dr. Martin Luther King Street North in St. Petersburg, according to the St. Pete Economic Development Corporation. And back in 2019, the Tampa Bay Times reported that Jabil's headquarters in the city's Gateway area was expected to undergo a $67.3 million expansion.
The earlier headquarters expansion followed a period when relocation was on the table. A Pinellas County board document said Jabil had considered moving its headquarters out of the Gateway area, including to sites elsewhere in the Tampa Bay region and other states, before deciding to keep and expand the campus. The county record described the $67.3 million project as a three-phase undertaking and estimated it would accommodate 300 new full-time jobs. Those figures were projections for that headquarters project, not job estimates for the new warehouse. The county’s project record documents the retention decision and projected employment.
That earlier headquarters project included the construction of an Innovation Center, which St. Pete Catalyst described as the first phase of the $67.3 million buildout. The Innovation Center alone was credited with creating a dozen new jobs paying an average wage of $95,000 each, per the Catalyst's reporting at the time. Those past projects are distinct from the newly announced warehouse space, and the available reporting does not tie them together as a single ongoing effort.
For now, residents watching St. Petersburg's industrial corridor have confirmation that Jabil is investing locally again, even if the finer details, cost, timeline, and hiring plans, remain unannounced.
