Google CEO Sundar Pichai, joined by Texas Governor Greg Abbott (R), has announced a massive $40 billion investment in the state, which includes the construction of three new data centers in West Texas and the Panhandle.
KWTX reports that in a move that highlights Texas’ growing importance in the field of AI, Google has unveiled plans to invest $40 billion in the state through the development of three new data centers. The announcement was made by Alphabet and Google CEO Sundar Pichai, who was accompanied by Texas Gov. Greg Abbott in Midlothian on Friday.
The tech giant’s massive investment is the latest in a series of multibillion-dollar commitments by companies rushing to establish infrastructure capable of supporting advanced AI models. Google’s three new data centers will be situated in Armstrong County and Haskell County, with one of the Haskell County facilities being coupled with a new solar and battery storage plant designed to minimize its impact on the electric grid.
Gov. Abbott emphasized the significance of this investment, stating, “Texas is the epicenter of AI development, where companies can pair innovation with expanding energy. 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. We must ensure that America remains at the forefront of the AI revolution, and Texas is the place where that can happen.”
Texas has witnessed a surge in data capacity in recent years, thanks to its relatively affordable energy prices, the ease with which facilities can connect to the grid, and its overall business-friendly tax and regulatory environment. The state currently boasts at least 411 data centers, second only to Virginia in the United States.
Pichai highlighted Texas’ crucial role in the growth of AI, saying, “They say that everything is bigger in Texas — and that certainly applies to the golden opportunity with AI.” Data centers, which are energy-intensive facilities housing servers that provide computing power, along with cooling units to prevent overheating, have contributed to projections by the Electric Reliability Council of Texas that demand on the power grid could nearly double by 2030.
In addition to the construction of the data centers, Google’s investment will also fund workforce development initiatives aimed at training existing electrical workers and more than 1,700 apprentices in Texas by 2030. The Data Center Coalition estimates that each job in a data center supports six additional jobs elsewhere in the economy, with companies generally employing between 50 to 150 or more employees in each facility, alongside various building and maintenance contractors.
Read more at KWTX here.
Lucas Nolan is a reporter for Breitbart News covering issues of free speech and online censorship.
