Tech mogul Google have announced the expansion of their Pryor data center in Oklahoma, U.S.A. Through this expansion, which will see an investment of USD 600M, Google plan to attract businesses hailing from industries other than energy and construction.
Google say that the Pryor city data center is built on a land where a coal-fired power station was previously located. They further added that most of the businesses in the area belonged to energy and construction industries, which later became their clients. They also say that they were able to quickly come up to speed since these companies were present earlier.
Andrew Silvestri, Head of External Affairs for Google in Oklahoma, commented:
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.
Google claim that business growth also calls for diversification. They say that investing in Oklahoma’s Pryor facility previously was a huge turning point for Google’s data centers. They further claim that the total investment in Oklahoma stands at USD 2.5 billion, including this investment.
With this expansion, Google say that they will be adding a four-story data center to the Pryor campus which already employs close to 400 employees.
Emphasizing this, John Feary, Executive Director of Claremore Industrial and Economic Development Authority, Oklahoma, said:
Mayes County will certainly benefit from use tax and jobs, but the people who work there and are performing those jobs are from all over northeast Oklahoma. Any time there’s that significant of an investment it has an impact on all the surrounding areas.