COUNCIL BLUFFS, Iowa (KMTV) — Google's big Council Bluffs data center is getting bigger.
Tuesday, the company announced a $350 million investment to expand the center along I-29, which first broke ground in 2007.
It's one of the largest Google data centers in the world, said Allie Hopkins, the server operations lead for Iowa and Nebraska data centers at Google.
The company says it's already invested about $5 billion in southwest Iowa and employs around 900 people.
"We need all of this innovation to really supply and support AI innovations that we have coming and the growing cloud," Hopkins said. She said it also supports the tools you might use every day, like Google Drive and Gmail.
Politicians were on hand, like Iowa U.S. Sen. Joni Ernst and Lt. Gov. Adam Gregg.
He said people think of agriculture when they think of Iowa, not tech.
"I think we surprise people when they learn we're also the home to major tech industry players like Google," he said.
Google also announced a $250,000 grant to support the construction of Council Bluffs' first co-working space.
"I think I almost cried when they announced it because it's just been a long time coming," said Paula Hazlewood, the CEO of the company that received the gran, Advance Southwest Iowa Corporation.
They hope the space will help support local small businesses.
"It's something that's been missing in Council Bluffs," said Nicky Ferguson, who is manager of entrepreneurial development at the Advance Southwest Iowa Corporation. "We're way under the curve, we needed something, a place where all these folks can come together, feed off each other, learn from each other."
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