Google is planning $600 million expansion at Pryor data center
Google will spend $600 million to expand its data center near Pryor, the company announced Friday.
The expansion will include an new fourstory data center at the site that already employs more than 400 people and is the company’s second-largest data center.
“Oklahoma has proven to be an important home for Google since opening our data center operations here in 2011,” Andrew Silvestri, head of external affairs for Google in Oklahoma, said in a statement Friday. “We’ve been able to accelerate our growth here in part due to the incredible support from our Mayes County partners and the state of Oklahoma. We look forward to continuing our success in Oklahoma.”
In a blog post Friday, Google CEO Sundar Pichai said Friday’s announcement is part of a $2.5 billion plan to build or expand data centers in Oklahoma, Alabama, Oregon, Tennessee and Virginia.
“Our goal is to ensure that information serves everyone, not just a few,” Pichai said in the blog post. “To do this, we want to hire people to develop our products in the widest possible range of locations, round the world and throughout the United States.”
Big data is big business
Google has offices and data center in 21 states. The company opened its Oklahoma location in 2011 and has invested more than $2.5 billion in the site.
“Google continues to be a valuable partner in our state by reinvesting in the community,” Gov. Mary Fallin said in a statement Friday. “It has donated more than $2 million in STEM (science, technology, engineering and math) grants and tech programs, which is another reason I’m pleased Google has chosen to grow in Oklahoma.
Google’s data center in Pryor is one of the largest of the company’s 13 data centers worldwide. It’s also the first of Google’s data centers to reach the company’s goal of producing zero landfill waste.
Google has contracted for 572 megawatts of electricity from four Oklahoma wind farms as part of its goal to provide 100 percent of its energy needs from renewable resources.
In 2013, Google paid PepsiCo Inc. $24.5 million for an idled Gatorade plant next to its Mayes County industrial plant. The 1.4 million-squarefoot former Gatorade plant is one of the largest industrial buildings in the state.
Google has since expanded its Oklahoma data center to include a complex of four buildings, including a fourstory data center the company opened in September 2016.
Shortly after celebrating the previous expansion, Google executives hinted that further construction in Oklahoma was likely.
“It comes down to economics on everything,” Joe Kava, the company’s senior vice president of technical infrastructure, said in a December 2016 interview with The Oklahoman.
“We’re going to continue to expand. The last few years there was rapid expansion. I would expect the expansion won’t be as rapid in the future, but it will continue to expand. Just like all our sites, it’s a key node in our global computer and it’s a very important site to us.”