Google is investing $600M into Loudoun County

A few months ago, Google announced a $13 billion U.S. expansion plan, that included some incentives for Northern Virginia.

The tech giant is now making good on that promise by confirming its plans to invest $600 million more into Loudoun County. This investment includes two new data centers and grants for STEM education, bringing its total investment in Virginia to $1.2 billion.

A majority of the funds will go toward building new data center sites. One data center will be built in Virginia’s Arcola Center, a mixed-use development, and the other in Stonewall Business Park, a campus of high-security uses and facilities. The $200, 000 educational grant was split between local nonprofits, the Community Foundation for Loudoun and Northern Fauquier Counties and the Loudoun Education Foundation. The grants were awarded to support STEM education in Virginia, including teacher training, special programs and teaching materials, a press release states.

“As we get our operations underway in Loudoun County, we’re starting to get to know the community better and are proud to support two organizations doing great work to support students, schools and nonprofits across the county,” Kelley Edwards, a Google operations manager, said in a statement. “We look forward to deepening our roots here as our facilities come online and our teams are hired.”

Edwards will oversee the two new data centers upon completion.

Currently, Google resides in the Reston Town Center but is eying a move its Virginia office to a larger building at 1900 Reston Metro Plaza, Technical.ly DC previously reported.

“Google is making historic capital investments in Loudoun County, and these grants to the Community Foundation and the Loudoun Education Foundation demonstrate the company’s long-term commitment to the region and its citizens,” Virginia Economic Development Partnership President and CEO Stephen Moret said in the news release. “STEM education at the K-12 level is critical to help create innovators of the future as well as to develop a robust tech talent pipeline with the 21st-century skills to serve high-tech employers across the Commonwealth for decades to come.”

This educational boost in Northern Virginia comes after Amazon Web Services announced a partnership yesterday with George Mason University and Northern Virginia Community College (NOVA) to create a Bachelor of Applied Science (BAS) pathway in cloud computing. Earlier this week, Virginia Tech also announced its plans for its innovation campus in proximity to Amazon’s Arlington-based headquarters.