Google announces $40 billion Texas push: Sundar Pichai calls it ‘Home’, Elon Musk says ‘Mind-Blowing-but still…’

Google is doubling down on Texas with a whopping $40 billion investment through 2027 to expand its cloud and AI operations.

CEO Sundar Pichai shared the news on social media, explaining that the investment will be used to develop new data centers in Armstrong and Haskell Counties and to “strengthen energy resiliency in the state.”

Google is also planning to train and support more than 1,700 electrician apprentices in Texas by 2030 and to double the number of trained electricians there, as part of its workforce development initiatives.

“We’ve proudly called Texas home for 15 years and this is another significant milestone in our longstanding partnership with the state,” Pichai noted in the blog post.

In addition to building two new data centers in Texas, Google will have at least one facility with a dedicated solar and battery-storage system on site. “In total, Google is signing more than 6,200 megawatts of new clean energy capacity through power-purchase agreements as part of this investment, helping meet the demands of these data centers with new sources of clean power,” the post noted.

Google also plans to establish a $30 million Energy Impact Fund to “help power community energy efficiency projects in the state.” As part of this investment, Google will “support thousands of jobs at the company and create thousands of new jobs” as the project is being built out.

Musk Responds to Google’s Investment in Texas

Elon Musk was among those quick to react to Google’s $40 billion investment in Texas. The Tesla and SpaceX founder, who has opened an array of operations to Texas, said on Twitter that he was “mind-blown” by the investment, specifically at Google’s plans to spend $10 billion per year on AI.

“But still many orders of magnitude to go…” he added.

Not to be outdone, Pichai chimed in with a joke about Texas’ enviable geography: “Between abundant sand, plenty of sun and space to put it in, we can do it :)”

The Texas Investment is a Multiyear Play

The announcement is one of the largest infrastructure investments Google has made in the U.S. to date, and is part of a larger effort by the company to expand its cloud and AI businesses including the development of new data centers across the country and around the world.

Google has previously said that the U.S. is a top market for cloud and AI services and has been making significant investments in the country to expand its presence.

The new data centers in Texas will help Google to increase its computing capacity and will create jobs in the state.

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