Google Columbus
Chip types: TPU v5e,TPU v5p,TPU v6e,TPU v7. Epoch AI estimates ~303 MW.
Key facts
- Operator
- Owner
- Tenant
- Google DeepMind
- Size
- 303 MW
- Location
- Columbus, Ohio
- Stage today
Source
read 2026-08-14
What to do next
Next step: Already operating — the leverage now is enforcement: noise and water conditions, tax revenue tracking, and any expansion filing, which reopens the record.
What has happened so far (11 events)
- 2021-03-01incentive
In March 2021 the Columbus City Council voted 6-to-1 to approve a 15-year, 100% property tax abatement worth $54.3 million for Magellan Enterprises LLC (later revealed to be a Google subsidiary) for a $300 million data center at 5076 S. High Street; council members did not learn the applicant was Google until months later. · source - 2021-05-01filing
In May 2021 Google, operating as Magellan Enterprises LLC, purchased the 480-acre former Hartman Stock Farm property at 5076 S. High Street in Columbus for more than $30 million, according to Franklin County Auditor records. · source - 2022-06-23construction
Google broke ground on its $300 million, 150,000-square-foot Columbus data center at the former Hartman Farm site, ahead of schedule, with an expected completion by end of 2025 and 20 permanent jobs; the company also signed a Good Neighbor Agreement with the Far South Columbus Area Commission to preserve roughly one-third of the 496-acre site as green space. · source - 2023-05-04announcement
Google publicly confirmed plans for two new data centers in Columbus (5076 S. High St., ~500 acres, ~$300 million) and Lancaster (104 Whiley Road, ~120 acres, $120 million) as part of its over-$2 billion total Ohio investment since 2019. · source - 2023-08-30financing
Google announced an additional $1.7 billion investment across its three central Ohio data center campuses in Columbus, Lancaster, and New Albany to complete the Columbus and Lancaster facilities and expand New Albany, bringing total Ohio data center investment past $2 billion. · source - 2024-01-01operational
The Google Lockbourne data center at 5076 S. High Street in Columbus became fully operational in 2024, comprising four buildings (Metro Park, Cloud Center, Cloud Ridge, and Cloud Station) on the campus. · source - 2024-06-18financing
Google announced an additional $2.3 billion investment in its three central Ohio data center campuses (Columbus, New Albany, Lancaster) for cloud services and AI infrastructure, bringing total Ohio investment past $4.4 billion since 2019. · source - 2024-11-01environmental
In November 2024 the Columbus City Council voted 9-0 to raise water and sewer rates; Google's Far South Side data center consumed 177 million gallons of water in 2024 during its first year of operation. · source - 2025-11-12financing
Google signed a 15-year power purchase agreement with TotalEnergies for the 49-MW Montpelier solar farm in Williams County, Ohio, to supply 1.5 TWh of renewable electricity to its Ohio data center operations. · source - 2025-12-23coverage
WOSU reported that data centers are a main driver of rising utility costs in Columbus, with AEP Ohio, Columbia Gas, and Columbus Water all seeking rate increases projected to add $36/month for average customers by 2027; PUCO held public hearings in December 2025. · source - 2026-03-06coverage
The Columbus Free Press reported that Google's Far South Side facility used 177 million gallons of water in 2024, documented visible steam emissions near residential areas, and quoted former Far South Side area commissioner Bruce Miller saying hundreds of resident voices were ignored during the approval process. · source
Find the paper trail
Find the paper trail (0 filed · 11 places to look)
State environmental permits
Backup generators, water withdrawal and stormwater are permitted by the state, usually earlier and in more detail than anything filed locally.
- Ohio EPA — Division of Air Pollution ControlThe program page: which permits this state requires, and the office that issues them.
- Ohio EPA eBusiness Center (Air Services)Searchable public filings — search the operator, the shell LLC on the deed, and the address.
County & town filings
The rezoning application, site plan, traffic and noise studies, staff report and every revision.
- Search Columbus planning filingssearchPlanning departments post application files under many different names. Find the department, then ask the clerk for the application number — that number unlocks everything else.
- Search Columbus property records / GISsearchThe parcel record names the buying LLC and the sale date, which is what ties an anonymous filing to an operator.
Utility & grid records
The electricity request is filed with the grid operator and the utility long before the town hears about it — and states the real load.
- PJM Interconnection (Mid-Atlantic, Ohio Valley) — interconnection queueRequested megawatts, queue position and target in-service date. The MW here is the real number; the one at the town meeting is often phase one.
- Public Utilities Commission of Ohio — docket searchSpecial contracts, large-load tariffs and rate cases are docketed here. Testimony and exhibits are public, and are usually more candid than the press release.
- FERC eLibraryFederal filings: transmission agreements, interconnection service agreements, and co-location disputes.
- Search the serving utility for a will-serve lettersearchThe will-serve or load-service letter is the utility's own written commitment. Ask the utility and the PUC for it by name — it is frequently the first document to exist.
Federal databases
Works anywhere, and covers the operator's record at its other sites.
- EPA ECHO facility searchEvery federally-reported air, water and waste permit at a facility, plus its inspection and violation history. Search by address or draw a radius around the site. This project's locality centres on 39.900, -82.980 — search that point with a 5-mile radius.
- EPA EnvirofactsThe same underlying records, queryable by county — useful for 'what else is permitted near this site' rather than one facility.
- EPA Facility Registry ServiceResolves the shell LLC on a permit to the facility it belongs to. Worth a look when the filing name means nothing locally.
These are places to look, not evidence that anything has been filed. Links were checked on 2026-08-21; search links are queries, not records. What to ask for.
Around here
- Ohio briefing — rates, grid carbon, PUC contacts.
Other tracked projects in Ohio
- Google New Albany — New Albany, 16 mi
- Meta Prometheus — New Albany, 16 mi
- Aligned Data Centers - Pataskala industrial park — Pataskala (Licking County), 18 mi Awaiting decision
- Google Lancaster — Lancaster, 24 mi
- Urbana Technology Hub — Urbana (Champaign County), 43 mi In review
Cite this page: GridWatch AI, “Google Columbus”, aigridwatch.com/projects/google-columbus, retrieved 2026-10-11.
As of August 2026 (2m ago) · changes weekly — re-check before citing
A working set of identified proposals a community can track, not a census — most of the country's activity is not in here yet. Pennsylvania is the exception: its rows are synced from PA DEP's own data-center permit tracker, so the state's coverage is close to complete and carries the permit trail with it. **Each row carries its own provenance.** Rows showing a verification date link to reporting or the governing body's own record and were read on that date; rows marked *unverified* have no source on record — a lead to check, not a fact to cite. **Stage is derived, not asserted.** *Hearing scheduled*, *Awaiting decision*, *Approved* and *Withdrawn* are computed from each row's milestone dates on every rebuild, so a hearing date that has passed stops reading 'scheduled'. Hearings get moved and projects re-file under new names — treat a scheduled date as the earliest to act by, and confirm with the clerk before relying on it. Leads are mined into data/project_candidates.json and promoted here only after a human reads a primary source.
Part of the data center project tracker — open data, CC BY 4.0 (JSON · CSV).