Google plans to invest more than $400 million in Nevada this year to support its data center campuses in Storey and Clark counties, the company announced Tuesday.
The investment will help meet growing demand for Google Cloud, AI innovations, and other digital products and services, Google Data Centers Vice President Joe Kava said at an event held at UNR to announce the investment.
The new funding brings Google’s total investment in the state to more than $2.2 billion since 2019, when the company broke ground on its first Nevada data center in Clark County. In 2021, the company built its Storey County data center.
In 2023, Google says its operations provided $6.97 billion of economic activity in Nevada.
“Google’s continued investment is paramount to the tech hub that continues to grow across the state,” Republican Gov. Joe Lombardo said in a press release.
At the event, Lombardo thanked UNR president and Republican former Gov. Brian Sandoval for supporting the Tahoe-Reno Industrial Center, where Google’s Northern Nevada data centers are housed. Lombardo added that he looks forward to continued collaboration with Google to drive innovation in the state.
Sandoval called Lombardo “the right leader at the right time to take Nevada into that next chapter.”
“We talked for a long time about creating a new Nevada, where this state would be a technology innovation hub … for the world,” Sandoval said.
In 2020, Google pledged to invest $600 million to each of its Nevada data centers.
That year, the nation’s digital economy accounted for roughly 10 percent of its gross domestic product and created 7.8 million jobs.
Google also announced Tuesday that it would make a $500,000 contribution to the National Forest Foundation to enhance the resilience of the Truckee River watershed and reduce wildfire risk in the Tahoe National Forest. The project will thin and remove forest fuels to help retain water in the basin and reduce the risk of catastrophic wildfires.
Lombardo called the project “fantastic,” citing the need for ongoing fuel reductions, especially in light of the recent challenges some Nevadans have faced acquiring home insurance because of the increase in extreme wildfires plaguing the West.
Google also has invested more than $4.7 million in water stewardship projects in the Las Vegas Valley and Lower Colorado River Basin.
Google is pursuing a goal of running on carbon-free energy by 2030. It has contracted with utilities to bring more than 450 megawatts of new clean energy to the state.