COLUMBUS, Ohio (AP) 鈥� Google plans to build two more data centers in Ohio to help power its artificial intelligence technology and other tools, the company and state officials announced Wednesday.
With one data center already up and running near Columbus, the two new locations will bring Google's total investment in Ohio to more than $2 billion, officials said.
Ohio is seeing a wave of big investments by the technology industry.
Intel is building a just east of Columbus, and Honda and LG Energy Solution of South Korea are building a $3.5 billion battery plant between Columbus and Cincinnati that the automaker envisions as its North American .
The area around Columbus also is home to data centers operated by and Amazon.
The two new Google data centers will be built in Columbus and Lancaster.
鈥淥hio is a growing technology hub and data center market, and we welcome these two new Google projects in Columbus and Lancaster to complement the one already in New Albany,鈥� Ohio Gov. Mike DeWine said in a statement.
Mark Isakowitz, Google鈥檚 head of government affairs in the U.S. and Canada, would not say how many jobs would be created, adding that data centers typically employ about 50 people at opening and those numbers increase as they expand.
鈥淚f you look at some of the sites we have around the country, it鈥檚 hundreds and hundreds of people as you build and as you grow,鈥� he said.
Data centers have proliferated across the U.S. and become a welcome revenue source for local governments. They also require a large amount of electricity and high-voltage transmission lines.
In northern Virginia, which is home to the biggest cluster of data centers, mostly about the constant noise from fans needed to cool the computers and servers.
The Associated Press
