Google adds $1B investment to data centers in Texas

Google is investing an additional $1 billion into data centers to support searches and AI as part of its expansion into Texas, the company announced Thursday.

Why it matters: Dallas-Fort Worth is the new Silicon Valley . Major companies like Google, Amazon , Facebook and Verizon have all expanded data centers in the region in the past five years.

• D-FW has nearly 70,000 jobs in information services, including data housing, per a Dallas Regional Chamber of Commerce estimate .

The big picture: Google already has a sprawling campus in Midlothian and has broken ground on a 285,000-square-foot data center in Red Oak, also south of Dallas.

• The California-based company opened its first Texas office in 2007 and has locations in Austin, Dallas and Houston. The new spending brings the digital goliath's Texas investment to $2.7 billion.

Zoom in: Google established the Dallas cloud region in 2022 after building its first data center on a 375-acre site in Midlothian in 2019. The company has since added 165 acres to the sprawling industrial complex.

• A new 170,600-square-foot data center building is under construction at the Midlothian site, per a Texas Department of Licensing and Regulation filing .
• Google officials did not detail where the additional $1 billion investment is going.

State of play: Texas political leaders cite the state's friendly regulatory environment for drawing data companies to the region.

• A 2013 state law exempts data centers of a certain size from paying state sales tax .

What they're saying: Google joins other companies moving to or expanding in Texas, like Caterpillar, Tesla and Toyota. Sen. Ted Cruz called the state "an oasis for jobs."

• "There's a reason people are coming to Texas and that's because Texas is where the jobs are," Cruz said during an event at the Midlothian Google campus yesterday.

Worthy of your time: This D Magazine story shares how North Texas' relatively cheap water and land helped it achieve data center dominance.