On the border of Iowa and Nebraska, near Council Bluffs, Google has announced intentions to invest $350 million in expanding the data centre. The first announcement of the Council Bluffs data centre’s plans came in 2007. Google declared ambitions to grow between 2012 and 2015, and since then, it has invested about $5 billion in the campus and other buildings in the area/state.
Given the rising demand for these services, the data centre’s expansion will enable artificial intelligence and boost the site’s capacity for cloud storage.
According to Google’s Allie Hopkins, who oversees the company’s data centres in Iowa and Nebraska, the expansion will result in “more buildings, more support needed across all fronts… not just the technicians and facility technicians, but all the support services that we need to keep these buildings running.”
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Additional employment opportunities at the Google Council Bluffs data centre
In addition to the 900 employees existing at the site, the expansion will create more positions there. Google reportedly has two data centres in Council Bluffs, one close to Lake Manawa and another near the Southlands campus, according to Baxtel. The Southlands Council Bluff complex contains four buildings totalling 2.9 million square feet (270,000 square metres), according to Baxtel. Along with the data centre investment, Google has also awarded the Advance Southwest Iowa Corp a $250,000 grant to build a co-working entrepreneurial hub that will aid new local business owners.
The investment, according to US Senator Joni Ernst, “With this expansion, not only are they making the physical, capital investment here in Pottawattamie County, but they are also affecting the livelihoods of so many people that will choose to call southwest Iowa and southeast Nebraska their home.”After the Iowa Economic Development Authority approved a $16.6 million local property tax credit for the corporation, the Des Moines Register reported in October 2022 that Google was expecting to invest $600 million in the Council Bluffs site. Google previously stated that the expansion will be operational by the end of 2024 and that construction would start in Q3 2022.