. will spend $9 billion to expand its data center operations in Virginia, including a new data center complex at Chesterfield County鈥檚
The company also plans expansions at its two Loudoun County campuses and at its Prince William County campus.
Gov. Glenn Youngkin spoke Wednesday at Brightpoint Community College in Chesterfield County during Google鈥檚 announcement of a multi-billion-dollar investment in Virginia, including a site in Chesterfield.
"We are deepening our roots here in Virginia," said Ruth Porat, president and chief investment officer of Google and its parent firm, Alphabet.
"We're investing in the community, we're investing in the future, and we're extending our investments across the state to best position Virginia and America for the opportunities that technology and AI can deliver," she said.
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In addition, Porat said the company will offer free artificial intelligence tools training and a chance to earn "Google career certificates" at Brightpoint Community College, where she announced the $9 billion statewide investment in new facilities, as well as the University of Virginia, Old Dominion University and Northern Virginia Community College. Google is also offering all Virginia-based college students access to a free Google program that provides access to AI tools.
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"Nine billion dollars, that's not a small number," Gov. Glenn Youngkin said, at an event announcing the investment.
"And it's by 2026 and I can't wait to start talking about 2027 and 2028," he said, calling the investment a "commitment to opportunity and jobs and the commitment to education and preparation and skills and talent, that is what the future is about, and that's why it's built in Virginia."
At Meadowville, in the southeastern part of Chesterfield County, Google plans to launch a campus with one building but details such as how much it will invest, building size, electricity use and square footage are still being determined, a spokeswoman said.
Chesterfield County, which has been working on the project since 2018, is not offering any incentives, said Garrett Hart, director of economic development.
The county did agree that if it ever raises its current tax on servers of 24 cents per $100 of value, it would refund the difference to Google.
Google, meanwhile, has committed to pay for expansion of water service to the new facility, "all the way back to the plant," said County Administrator Joe Casey.
Data centers' high water use for cooling equipment and the cost of supplying has been a concern in other communities.
Chesterfield has targeted data centers as job and tax revenue generators, but focuses on locating them in industrial areas like Meadowville and areas removed from residential neighborhoods.
This spring, county supervisors聽 approved rezoning 979 acres of undeveloped land that the planned Powhite Parkway extension will cross for a large data center campus, that will ultimate require 900 megawatts of electricity, enough to power 225,000 homes.
The board also approved rezoning 350 acres near the Watkins Centre in the western part of the county for a data center campus.
County supervisors last year approved a plan from Chirisa Technology Parks to build two new data centers at Meadowville Technology Park, a $2 billion investment that would draw 1,000 megawatts of electricity from the Dominion Energy grid - roughly what 250,000 homes would use.
Virginia’s become a focal point for firms with growing cloud computing services to locate data centers, and a year and half ago , Inc. announced it plans to invest $35 billion by 2040 to establish multiple data center campuses across the state.
Last year, Google announced a $1 billion expansion of its Northern Virginia data center campuses.
