By Spencer Kimball
Publication Date: 2026-02-24 14:00:00
Signage at the Google Midlothian Data Center in Midlothian, Texas, US, on Friday, Nov. 14, 2025.
Jonathan Johnson | Bloomberg | Getty Images
Alphabet‘s Google will build its first data center in Minnesota and deploy a significant amount of new renewable energy in the state under an agreement with utility Xcel, the companies announced Tuesday.
The data center will be located on a 480-acre site at Pine Island, a town of about 4,000 people some 70 miles southeast of Minneapolis. Google had not publicly disclosed its role in the project previously. The facility will be used for artificial intelligence applications as well as Google’s broader cloud business.
The proposed data center at Pine Island has faced community opposition but is supported by the city council. It has not begun construction yet. Data centers are facing political blowback in communities across the U.S. more often as people blame them for rising electricity prices in some regions and worry about their environmental…
