Alphabet’s Google is investing $40 billion to build new data centers in two Texas counties.
The announcement, made Friday, said one of the new data centers will be in Armstrong County, in the Texas Panhandle, and the other two in Haskell County, a stretch of West Texas near Abilene.
“This investment will create thousands of jobs, provide skills training to college students and electrical apprentices, and accelerate energy affordability initiatives throughout Texas,” Alphabet CEO Sundar Pichai said in a statement obtained by Reuters.
Google has been in the Lone Star State for 15 years, and the investment, which will be made through 2027, underscores the intensifying competition among artificial intelligence (AI) and cloud service providers to build infrastructure capable of supporting advanced AI models.
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“Google’s $40 billion investment makes Texas Google’s largest investment in any state in the country and supports energy efficiency and workforce development in our state,” Texas Gov. Greg Abbott said in a statement.
People living in some states have been pushing back against data centers.
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Back in September, Tarboro, North Carolina, residents urged their town council to reject a proposal for a 50-acre, 300-megawatt Energy Storage Solutions LLC site due to the belief it would consume enormous amounts of water and electricity, deplete natural resources and raise utility rates.
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People living in Menomonie, Wisconsin, felt similarly about water usage and higher electricity bills that would be caused by a mystery company’s $1.6 billion proposed data center.
OpenAI, Microsoft, Meta Platforms and Amazon are among companies spending billions of dollars on new AI-focused data centers.
Reuters contributed to this report.
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