Google Announces $600M Data Center Coming to Mesa

Article originally posted on HERE on April 9, 2024

Google is launching its first physical presence in the Valley by building a $600 million data center in Mesa.

On Wednesday, the tech giant announced that it’ll bring technical infrastructure to help support the company’s efforts in artificial intelligence and cloud business computing. Google adds that the new data center will help power things like Google Search, Gmail, Maps, Google Cloud, and other products and services. Executives from Google were joined by Gov. Katie Hobbs, Rep. Greg Stanton, and Mesa Mayor John Giles.

“Google’s investment in Arizona will be critical for the Mesa community and our state’s economy,” Governor Katie Hobbs said. “Arizona continues to attract global technology leaders due to our skilled workforce, dynamic economy, and focus on innovation. We are proud to welcome Google to Arizona and look forward to the many opportunities this partnership will bring.”

As the tech world continues to expand rapidly, Google is adding a Google Cloud region to Phoenix to bring cloud technologies closer to local customers. Those efforts will help deliver digital services faster and more reliably to Arizonans.

“We are proud to put down roots in Arizona with both the data center in Mesa and the Phoenix cloud region,” said Joe Kava, VP of Data Centers at Google. “Not only do data centers help keep digital services up and running for people and businesses, they are economic anchors in the communities where we operate. We are appreciative of the continued partnership with the local leadership across the state.”

Google says that last year, $11.4 billion in economic activity was generated for tens of thousands of Arizona businesses.

What about water use?

The new data center will reportedly use state-of-the-art technology to limit water usage, according to Google’s press release. “This strategy prioritizes minimizing net climate impact and using natural resources responsibly, both today and in the future,” the statement says. “In line with this approach, the Mesa data center will make use of air-cooled technology.” Google also references in commitment to reducing its energy use, adding that since 2017, the company says it has worked to match its energy usage with an equal amount of renewable energy to offset the impact.

“Beyond its operations, Google is committed to improving local watershed health where its office campuses and data centers are located and replenish 120% of the water it consumes, on average,” company officials wrote in the news release. The company recently gave $150,000 to the Salt River Project to help watershed restoration efforts and assist with wildfire risk reduction.