CHESTERFIELD, Va. (WWBT) - Inside the Talley Workforce Center at Brightpoint Community College’s Chester campus on Wednesday morning, Google announced their plans to build a new data center near Meadowville Technology Park in Chesterfield.
“Today, I’m proud to announce that Google is building a new data center in Chesterfield County,” said Ruth Porat, president and chief investment officer of Alphabet and Google during Wednesday’s announcement.
The plan is part of Google’s $9 billion investment in Virginia through 2026, with a focus on cloud and artificial intelligence infrastructure and funding to expand two existing facilities in northern Virginia.
“When we look for new sites, we look for a strong talent pool, both for construction and operations, as well as available infrastructure and land,” said Amber Tillman, head of data center public affairs for Google. “Lastly, but most importantly, great community partners who want to work with us and who will help advance our projects quickly and we found all of that in Chesterfield.”
The plan, touted as a “new era for American innovation,” has a mission to create economic opportunities, fortify cybersecurity, and expand workforce development in Virginia.
“Just a few weeks ago, Google launched the Google AI for Education Accelerator,” said Porat.
Porat said the program will give students access to free AI tools, training and a chance to earn their Google career certificates. The program will be available to students who attend the University of Virginia, Old Dominion University, Northern Virginia Community College and Brightpoint Community College.
However, Porat notes this support will expand differently for students across Virginia.
“As part of our broader overall commitment to American education and competitiveness, all Virginia-based college students also have access to a free Google AI Pro plan, providing access to advanced personalized AI collaboration tools,” she said. “This gets everyone the ability to actually have AI skills for the jobs that are here today and will continue to grow.”
Gov. Glenn Youngkin joined state and local leaders for the announcement in Chester.
“AI is at the heart of the future of business,” said Gov. Youngkin.
Data centers have also been at the heart of criticism growing across Central Virginia, with many people voicing their concerns about their environmental and energy impacts.
12 On Your Side asked Gov. Youngkin about his response to the pushback.
“I worry that the progressive left side of the political spectrum wants to dictate from Richmond what businesses can go where and they want to try to restrict data centers across the whole state, when each county or jurisdiction should be able to make that decision,” he said. “Do we need to make sure that citizen voices are heard? Yes. Do we need to make sure that local leaders are empowered to make decisions about where they go? Yes. Should that be decided in Richmond? Absolutely not.”
Gov. Youngkin also took a moment to double down about the reasons he advocates for these types of developments.
“They bring enormous investment, they bring a great tax base, they have great jobs to hire people and pay them very, very good salaries and on top of that, the ecosystem that builds up around our data center community has somewhere between six and 10 more jobs that come with it,” said Gov. Youngkin.
Google said the data center in Chesterfield is in the pre-construction phase and could take anywhere between 18 and 24 months to complete.
A spokesperson for Chesterfield said the data center is slated to be built on Bermuda Hundred Road and as with any project in Chesterfield, will need to obtain all necessary local and state permits.