(The Center Square) – Google on Friday announced its largest investment in any state in the country: $40 billion in Texas to build AI infrastructure, including data centers.
Alphabet and Google CEO Sundar Pichai joined Gov. Greg Abbott in Midlothian on Friday to make the announcement. U.S. Deputy Secretary of Energy James Danly, Google Global Head of Data Center Energy Amanda Peterson Corio, and other Google leaders and state officials also attended.
The investment is part of Google’s “Investing in America” initiative designed to boost cloud and AI infrastructure, build data center facilities, develop programs to strengthen energy capacity and affordability, and expand workforce training in the state.
“This is a Texas-sized investment in the future of our great state,” Abbott said. “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.”
“They say that everything is bigger in Texas – and that certainly applies to the golden opportunity with AI,” Pichai said. “The $40 billion investment we announced today will bring three new data center campuses to the state to power the new era of AI innovation. This investment will create thousands of jobs, provide skills training to college students and electrical apprentices, and accelerate energy affordability initiatives throughout Texas.”
“We’ve called Texas home for more than 15 years,” Google said in a separate announcement. The $40 billion investment in Texas goes through 2027 towards building “new cloud and AI infrastructure, including new data center campuses in Armstrong and Haskell counties.”
Google says it remains “committed to responsibly growing its infrastructure by bringing new energy resources onto the grid, paying for costs associated with its operations, and supporting community energy efficiency initiatives.”
In Texas, this includes a new $30 million Energy Impact Fund “to scale and accelerate energy initiatives,” it says. Google plans to produce more than 6,200 megawatts of new energy generation and capacity through power purchase agreements its making with energy developers.
In Haskell County, this includes building a new data center next to a new solar and battery storage plant.
It’s also investing in workforce training programs to help engineers build new technology and infrastructure. A new electrical training ALLIANCE, with Google’s support, will train existing electrical workers and train more than 1,700 apprentices in Texas by 2030. Doing so will “more than double the projected pipeline of new electricians in the state,” Google says.
“Our latest investment in Texas is designed to not only support Texas’ workforce and infrastructure, but to ensure the U.S. retains the technical backbone to lead the world in AI,” Google said.
Its “Investing in America initiative” was launched to encourage American innovation by funding technical infrastructure, research and development, expanded energy capacity for an AI-driven economy, and domestic workforce development. The initiative will “unlock substantial economic opportunity for American businesses – advancing scientific breakthroughs, fortifying cybersecurity for the U.S., and creating new career opportunities for millions of Americans,” Google says.
