Bill > A4558

Introduced Session

This bill establishes the "Next New Jersey Program" within the New Jersey Economic Development Authority (EDA) and modifies certain provisions of the "New Jersey Economic Recovery Act of 2020," P.L.2020, c.156 (C.34:1B-269 et al.). The purpose of the Next New Jersey Program would be to attract new investment to New Jersey in the artificial intelligence (or "AI") industry and AI-related industries, create new jobs and economic opportunities, and to position New Jersey as a leader in the innovation economy. Under the program, the EDA would provide tax credits to eligible businesses, following approval of an application by the EDA, to eligible AI businesses. Eligible AI businesses would include a business or division that is primarily engaged in the artificial intelligence industry or large-scale artificial intelligence data center industry. A business would be considered primarily engaged in such an industry if at least 50 percent of the business's employees are engaged in AI-related activities, or at least 50 percent of the business's revenue is generated from AI-related activities. The bill defines "artificial intelligence" or "AI" to mean the development of software and hardware, and the end-use application of technologies that are able to perform tasks normally requiring human intelligence, including, but not limited to, visual perception, speech recognition, decision-making, translation between languages, and generative artificial intelligence, which generates new content in response to user inputs of data. The bill provides that an eligible business that executes a project agreement with the EDA pursuant to the provisions of the Next New Jersey Program may receive tax credits as authorized under the project agreement. The bill defines "project" to mean a capital investment at a qualified business facility and an employment commitment specified in the eligible business's project agreement. The bill defines "qualified business facility" to mean any building, complex of buildings, or structural components of buildings, and all machinery and equipment located therein, used in connection with the operation of an eligible business. Under the bill, the amount of the tax credit allowed for a particular project would equal to the lesser of: (1) the product of 0.1 percent of the eligible business's total capital investment multiplied by the number of new full-time jobs; (2) 25 percent of the eligible business's total capital investment; or (3) $250 million. The bill provides that up to $500 million in tax credits, originally allocated for the New Jersey Aspire Program and the Emerge Program, be made available to eligible AI businesses under the Next New Jersey Program. Additionally, the bill provides that if the EDA awards less than the annual limitation of tax credits under the New Jersey Aspire Program and the Emerge Program, then the uncommitted credits would also be made available to eligible AI businesses under the Next New Jersey Program.

AI Summary

Committee Categories

Robert Karabinchak (D)*,  William Sampson (D)*,  Chris Tully (D)*,  Reginald Atkins (D),  Cody Miller (D),  Carol Murphy (D),  Shanique Speight (D), 

Substituted by S3432 (on 06/28/2024)

Official Document