Construction is underway on a new Google Data Center in Clarksville, Tennessee.
Google CEO Sundar Pichai, U.S. Senator Bob Corker and other officials attended a ceremonial groundbreaking on Friday.
The $600 million data center is expected to create around 70 high-tech jobs.
The facility is Google’s eighth data center in the country and 15th in the world. The development is part of a $2.5 billion investment Google is making to open or expand data centers in Alabama, Oregon, Tennessee, Virginia and Oklahoma.
Clarksville Mayor Kim McMillan said in a release the company’s investment is a “huge vote of confidence” in the community.
“When I look at this vast array of buildings and technology, I see the good people of Clarksville. I see the individual workers who will be proud to have a job at Google. I see their families and their children, growing strong and proud in a community bolstered by this commitment by Google,” McMillan said.
Montgomery County Mayor Jim Durrett said that this will be the most advanced data center in the world.
"Just to think that every time you do a search on Google or you send a Gmail out, more than likely it's routing through that data center," said Durrett. "The technology there is unbelievable and it's pretty special to know that data from around the world is going to be routing right through Montgomery County."
Enoch Moeller is the general manager of the new Clarksville data center. He said the community offers a strong job market. “We have access to resources like Fort Campbell, which produces a lot of really qualified folks as they start to transition out of the military,” said Moeller.
Moeller said Google is working to develop a relationship with Fort Campbell and will work with organizations that help personnel transition out of the military service.
“Ideally, we'll have a relationship with them so that as people are transitioning out and we have roles available, they'll be able to easily get resumes to us and we'll be able to look at them and find potential fits,” said Moeller.
The new center is located at the former Hemlock Semiconductor site. The first building is expected to open in 2019.
This story has been updated.
