Google investing $1B in Va. data center campuses

Google is investing $1 billion in expanding its Virginia data center campuses this year and is launching a $75 million Google.org AI Opportunity Fund, one of Google’s top executives and Gov. Glenn Youngkin announced Friday at Google’s Reston office.

“Today is a great day. We’ve got a $1 billion investment in the commonwealth that we’re announcing. There’s an establishment of a new AI Opportunity Fund. And we’re creating new and opportunistic ways and pathways for people to upskill and find a new pathway to an amazing career,” Youngkin said. “That is worth celebrating.”

Google has two data centers in Loudoun County and one in Prince William County and is investing $1 billion to expand those campuses. The Prince William County data center was built in 2023, according to a Google fact sheet. A Google spokesperson did not provide additional details about the size of the campuses or expansion plans.

Counting the $1 billion investment, Google has invested more than $4.2 billion in Virginia to date, according to a news release.

“The investments we’ve made today are not only important investments in infrastructure, but they’ve also added 3,500 jobs in Virginia, and they’ve supported $1 billion of economic activity, and we look forward to continuing to build on the work that we’ve done today,” said Ruth Porat, Google and Alphabet’s president, chief investment officer and chief financial officer.

Google appears to have additional plans for Prince William County data centers. In March, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers approved a 181-acre data center complex project application from Delaware-based Sharpless Enterprises, a shell organization linked to Google, according to InsideNova and trade publication Data Center Dynamics.

In Northern Virginia, around 300 data centers are sprawled across Loudoun, Prince William and Fairfax counties, with the majority in Loudoun. The Ashburn area in Loudoun is home to the world’s largest concentration of data centers, a zone known as Data Center Alley, which more than 70% of the world’s internet traffic comes through. The Prince William Digital Gateway, if completed as planned, would be the largest data center complex in the world.

According to the Data Center Coalition, the data center industry invested $37 billion in the commonwealth over just the past two years. One of Google’s main competitors, Amazon Web Services, invested $35 billion in Virginia data centers between 2011 and 2020 and plans to invest another $35 billion by 2040 to develop multiple data center campuses across Virginia.

Northern Virginia’s data center market is larger than the next five U.S. markets combined and larger than the next four global markets combined, Youngkin said, citing a 2023 JLL data centers report, measuring markets by megawatts of built-out critical IT load capacity. “With that comes tremendous synergy and an ecosystem that enables advanced development, and so Google’s $1 billion investment is a continued demonstration that that ecosystem is one worth investing in,” Youngkin said.

Data center opponents argue the centers strain the state’s electric grid. Dominion Energy estimates that Virginia data centers’ demand for electricity will jump from 2.8 gigawatts in 2023 to 13 gigawatts by 2038.

The 2020 Virginia Clean Economy Act created a 2050 mandate for generating electricity statewide from renewable, carbon-free energy sources. In 2022, Youngkin announced a state energy plan that endorsed an “all-of-the-above” mix of energy sources, including hydrogen, natural gas and nuclear power, in addition to the wind, solar and battery storage supported by Virginia Democrats.

“As we grow, the power demand accelerates as well, and that’s why, when we launched our all-of-the-above, all-American energy plan, it embraced the idea that we are going to have to innovate; we are going to have to accelerate in order to meet the growing demand across the commonwealth as our economy accelerates,” he said.

Google’s goal is to run its data centers entirely on carbon-free energy by 2030.

Artificial intelligence training

The $75 million AI fund from the company’s philanthropy, Google.org, will give grants to workforce development and education organizations. The tech giant is also launching a certificate course, AI Essentials, to teach people to “use AI effectively in day-to-day work,” according to a news release.

“I always remind everybody that companies and people make choices. ‘Where are we going to live? Where are we going to invest? Where are we going to spend the next 50 or 100 years of our effort?’” Youngkin said. “And I’m very humbled when families and companies choose Virginia. … And it’s days like today where we’re reminded that one of the greatest companies in the world is, once again, making a decision to invest in Virginia.”

The D’Aniello Institute for Veterans and Military Families (IVMF) at Syracuse University is the first organization to receive funding from the AI Opportunity Fund. The IVMF received a $3.5 million grant to offer the AI Essentials source and the Google Cybersecurity Certificate through its Onward to Opportunity program, a free career training program for transitioning service members, veterans and military spouses.

“With this new Google AI Essentials course, we are confident that we can arm our veterans and military family members with the training and the skills they need to put [AI] technology to use realizing whatever career aspirations they have,” said Mike Haynie, executive director of the IVMF and Syracuse University’s vice chancellor for strategic initiatives and innovation.

Google’s AI Essentials course will be under 10 hours. It will be available for $49 on Courseera as well as available for free through some nonprofits, including IVMF and Goodwill Industries.