Google has announced it will invest more than $1 billion in Texas this year to support both cloud and data center infrastructure.
The investment into the centers located in Midlothian and Red Oak are aimed at meeting the growing demand for cloud and artificial intelligence (AI) services.
The Midlothian location officially broke ground in 2019 and Red Oak was announced in 2023.
Google has 40 different cloud regions across the world, and its Dallas region was announced in 2022.
Google’s total investment in Texas is more than $2.7 billion.
“We're thrilled to strengthen our commitment to Texas. Expanding our cloud and data center infrastructure in Midlothian and Red Oak reflects our confidence in the state's ability to lead in the digital economy,” Yolande Piazza, vice president of financial services at Google Cloud, said in a statement.
“Together with Texas's talent and vibrant customer base, we’ll meet growing demand for Google Cloud and AI to help shape the future of technology.”
In attendance at the announcement were a variety of Texas lawmakers, including Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX), Congressman Jake Ellzey (R-TX-6), state Sen. Tan Parker (R-12), and state Reps. Jeff Leach (R-Plano) and Brian Harrison (R-Midlothian).
Cruz has been outspoken that the U.S. needs to “lead” in the field of AI — for which data center infrastructure is essential to provide scalable computing power and storage.
The energy and power demands of large data centers are substantial, requiring significant electrical capacity and efficient cooling systems to support the continuous operation of high-performance servers and ensure the reliability of critical AI workloads.
This comes within the context of a brewing legislative fight over these large loads and their effect on the power grid. Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick has announced his concern with the outsized power usage many Texas data centers and cryptocurrency miners use amid the lingering discussions about how to reform the state power grid in the wake of the 2021 blackouts.
“[C]rypto miners and data centers will be responsible for over 50 percent of the added growth. We need to take a close look at those two industries,” Patrick said.
He added that, “We want data centers, but it can’t be the Wild Wild West of data centers and crypto miners crashing our grid and turning the lights off.”
Growing demand for cloud and AI infrastructure comes alongside recent developments and investments made in Texas to bolster the production of semiconductors and microchips — which is also supported by the Texas CHIPS Act, passed in 2023 to create a research strategy for semiconductor innovation and funding.
