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Google announced on 5 November 2026 that it will build its first data centre in Wyoming, a $17bn (about £12.6bn) investment in Laramie County near Cheyenne. The company says it will pay for all the power the site uses, which will come partly from a planned 702 MW natural gas fuel-cell plant with carbon capture.
What is Google's $17bn Wyoming data centre plan?
Google plans to invest $17bn in its first Wyoming data centre, in Laramie County near Cheyenne, announced on 5 November 2026. It is working with Tallgrass Energy, Black Hills Energy, American Electric Power and Related Digital. Google says the site will be air-cooled, that it will pay for all the power it uses, and that more details are coming.
What did Google actually announce?
The announcement came in a Google blog post dated 5 November 2026 by Steve Walter, the company's vice president for global infrastructure and energy. It describes a $17bn long-term commitment and names Tallgrass Energy, Black Hills Energy, American Electric Power (AEP), Related Digital and fuel-cell maker Bloom Energy as partners.
Google's post says the investment is expected to generate hundreds of millions of dollars in local property taxes for Laramie County and School District 1. It also promises targeted grants for STEM education, local entrepreneurs and skilled trades training across the state, and says more community partnership details will follow "in the coming weeks".
Google's post gives no construction start date, no completion date and no job numbers. Those gaps matter, and we have not filled them with figures from elsewhere.
Where will the data centre be built?
Baxtel, a data centre industry tracker, reports that the campus covers 716 acres in the Switchgrass Industrial Park, about eight miles south of Cheyenne. It says the plan includes four data halls and that full build-out is targeted for 2031. Google's own post names only Laramie County and Cheyenne, so treat the acreage and the 2031 target as Baxtel's reporting rather than a Google statement.
How will the site be powered?
Power is the centre of the story. According to Google's post:
- AEP has a contract for a 702 MW fuel-cell development with carbon capture and storage (CCS), which Google describes as the largest planned project of its kind.
- The fuel cells run on natural gas and are made in the US by Bloom Energy.
- Additional power comes from gas generators operated by Tallgrass and Black Hills.
- A front-end engineering study will assess adding CCS to Tallgrass's combined cycle turbines.
- Captured carbon dioxide will be stored underground at Tallgrass's Eastern Wyoming Sequestration Hub.
- Google says it will pay for 100% of the power it uses.
Baxtel adds that AEP will build and own the fuel-cell plant and sell its output to Google under a 20-year contract. Google has not disclosed the data centre's capacity. Baxtel notes that earlier reports pointed to as much as 2.7 GW for the site, a figure Google has not confirmed.
What about water?
Google says the facility will be air-cooled to reduce strain on local water supplies, and that it also plans local water replenishment investments. Baxtel quotes Walter saying the data centre "will be air-cooled to minimize strain on local water resources".
How does Crusoe fit in?
The site did not start with Google. Crusoe, the Denver data centre developer, said on 6 November 2026 that Google had acquired its southeast Wyoming site, completing Crusoe's pre-development work on site selection, government approvals and a hybrid power strategy developed with Tallgrass. Crusoe's chief executive Chase Lochmiller said the company's pre-construction efforts "have set up the Wyoming project". The release gives no price.
TechCrunch reported the same day that Google had tried and failed to become a customer for the project and reportedly raised concerns about cost and timeline under Crusoe's management. It also said Google did not disclose what it paid Crusoe, and that the $17bn is Google's planned investment in developing the campus, not the purchase price. Crusoe's original plan, announced in 2025 with Tallgrass, was to scale the campus to 10 gigawatts. TechCrunch adds that Google and Crusoe still work together on another site near Amarillo in Texas.
The cost-and-schedule explanation is reported, not confirmed by either company.
Why does this matter?
Analysis. Three things stand out.
First, the scale. $17bn is a very large commitment for one site, yet Google has not said how much computing power it buys. Announcing dollars rather than megawatts makes comparison with rivals hard.
Second, the energy choice. A gas-fired, carbon-capture-backed supply is a bet that fossil fuel with storage can be built faster than a grid connection or renewables at this size. Whether the capture works at scale is not something the announcement can answer, and the 702 MW plant is still planned.
Third, the politics. Silicon UK, citing Ballotpedia, reports that of 41 data centre ballot measures voted on in the same week, all but one went against data centres. Google's emphasis on paying for its own power, air cooling and a community council reads as a response to that mood.
The money also lands in a market already crowded with AI infrastructure deals. See our coverage of the $115bn Marvell Lumentum all-stock deal for the optical networking side, Fractile's $720m Series C for the chip start-up side, and the AI chip sell-off that hit Nvidia and the Nasdaq for how nervous markets have been about spending on this build-out.
What happens next?
Google says it and its partners are forming a community council to address how data centre growth affects Cheyenne, after a downtown meeting that drew more than 200 residents. Further community details are promised in the coming weeks. The items still to watch are the capacity figure, the construction timetable and when the fuel-cell plant and carbon storage are due to operate.
Sources
- Google: Investing in Wyoming's infrastructure, energy and workforce
- Crusoe: Wyoming data centre campus update
- TechCrunch: Crusoe sells troubled Wyoming data center project to Google
- Silicon UK: Google To Invest $17bn In Wyoming Data Centre
- Baxtel: Google to invest $17B in first Wyoming data center near Cheyenne
FAQ
Frequently asked questions
Google says it is making a $17bn investment in its first Wyoming data centre, announced on 5 November 2026. It describes it as a long-term commitment. The figure is Google's planned investment in the campus, not the price it paid Crusoe for the site, which neither company has disclosed.
It is in Laramie County, near Cheyenne. Baxtel reports it is at the Switchgrass Industrial Park, about eight miles south of the city, on 716 acres. Google's own announcement names only Laramie County and Cheyenne.
Partly by a planned 702 MW natural gas fuel-cell plant using Bloom Energy cells, backed by carbon capture and storage, plus gas generators run by Tallgrass and Black Hills. Google says it will pay for 100% of the power it uses.
Google's announcement does not give a job figure. Some secondary outlets quote numbers, but we could not find them in Google's post, so we have not reported them.
Crusoe confirmed on 6 November 2026 that Google acquired its southeast Wyoming site. TechCrunch reports Google had concerns about cost and schedule under Crusoe's management. Neither company published a price.
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