Google announces $1.5 billion Alabama data center expansion, says it's covering energy costs

Plans to expand Google’s data center in Jackson County, Alabama, are underway with a $1.5 billion investment from the company. Google says energy costs will be covered by the company and operations powered by nuclear energy, eventually.

Construction for the expansion will span between 2026 and 2027 at a cost of $1.5 billion. Google says that the entirety of the “power and infrastructure” will be funded by the company in line with the US government’s Ratepayer Protection Pledge. Abiding by that pledge means Google would need to plan so that local electricity costs would not increase as a result of the increased activity in Google’s Jackson County data center.

Google notes that the expansion will eventually be powered by nuclear power through a partnership put in place between Google, Kairos, and TVA in 2025. The agreement supplies Google with up to 50 megawatts of clean power to data centers in both Alabama and Tennessee. That agreement would allow Google to draw power from a dedicated grid rather than relying on local energy sources that may drive demand.

It doesn’t appear that the pipeline has been opened yet, as Google notes it has contracted with TVA to bring more than 300 MV of “new generation capacity to the Tennessee Valley region” for the time being. It claims it’s currently acting to reduce power use during peak demand times until nuclear power becomes an option.

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Initial estimates put the Kairos Power plant’s completion at some point in 2035.

Google says:

In line with its support for the White House’s Ratepayer Protection Pledge, Google will pay for 100% of the power it uses. When Google builds new data centers, including its Jackson County expansion, it will also cover the infrastructure costs directly driven by its operations.

The campus began operations in 2019 and is located on the site of the Tennessee Valley Authority’s retired Widows Creek coal plant. Construction on this site allowed Google to repurpose existing electric lines and other infrastructure to enhance the data center’s reliability and add clean power to the grid.

To date, Google has contracted to bring more than 300 MW of new generation capacity to the Tennessee Valley region. In 2025, Google, Kairos Power, and TVA announced a historic partnership to supply up to 50 megawatts of advanced nuclear power to Google data centers in Tennessee and Alabama. Beyond bringing new clean energy to the grid, Google also acts as a flexible partner to TVA, using data center demand response to reduce power use during peak demand times and support grid stability during extreme weather events.

Google’s data center in Jackson County has been online since 2019, originally built on a repurposed coal plant. As Google’s commitment to generative and agentic AI models increases throughout Android and other products, processing power is becoming increasingly necessary to get a return on more capable AI models.