Project dossier · Papillion, Nebraska

Google Papillion Under construction

Chip types: TPU v4,TPU v5e,TPU v6e,TPU v5p. Epoch AI estimates ~237 MW.

Key facts

Operator: Google
Owner: Google
Tenant: Google DeepMind
Size: 237 MW
Location: Papillion, Nebraska
Stage today: Under construction

Source
read 2026-08-14

What to do next

Next step: Under construction — pull the approved conditions and permits and hold the builder to them; an expansion or a new building reopens the record.

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What has happened so far (10 events)

2019-01-02coverage
Data Center Dynamics reports that a project code-named 'Project Wizard' in Sarpy County has evidence pointing to Google as the developer of a major new data center. · source
2019-10-04announcement
Google holds a groundbreaking ceremony for a $600 million data center on a 275-acre site off Highway 50 and Schram Road in Papillion, with Governor Pete Ricketts, Congressman Don Bacon, and Mayor David Black in attendance; the facility is described as Google's 13th nationwide. · source
2019-10-04construction
KMTV reports that OPPD had been collaborating with Google on power infrastructure for approximately six years prior to the groundbreaking, and Google expects the Papillion facility to be operational within 18-24 months. · source
2022-04-21announcement
Google announces at least $750 million in new Nebraska investment including expansion of its Papillion campus at 14706 Schram Road (then employing 120 people) and a new data center in northwest Omaha, bringing total state investment past $1 billion. · source
2023-08-22announcement
Google announces $1.2 billion in new Nebraska investment to expand the Papillion and Omaha facilities and build a third data center in Lincoln; the Papillion facility is described as having created over 120 jobs since opening in 2019. · source
2025-11-18coverage
In November 2025, Silicon Prairie News reports that OPPD now anticipates annual electricity demand growth of over 100 MW (up from 4 MW previously), driven by data center expansion including Google's Sarpy County facility described as its first in Nebraska. · source
2026-06-03environmental
Google announces $17 million in water stewardship grants across seven states; the Metropolitan Utilities District in Omaha receives $3 million for acoustic leak-detection sensors across 500 miles of water lines, tied to Google's three Nebraska data centers. · source
2026-07-08coverage
In July 2026, Flatwater Free Press reports that Google's Nebraska data centers consumed approximately 732 million gallons of water in 2025, up from 46.6 million gallons in 2022 and 134.7 million gallons in 2023; the Papillion facility is identified as one of three sites. · source
2026-07-15report
Grist reports that Nebraska passed a law requiring data centers to disclose annual water consumption and power demand to the Department of Water, Energy, and Environment; Google's three Nebraska facilities including Papillion consumed approximately 732 million gallons in 2025. · source
2026-07-20incentive
Governor Pillen signs an executive order curbing tax incentives for large data centers; KOLN reports that Nebraska data centers have received $519 million in property tax exemptions since 2021. · 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.

Nebraska Dept. of Environment & EnergyThe program page: which permits this state requires, and the office that issues them.
Search Nebraska Dept. of Environment & Energy for this projectsearchThis state publishes no searchable permit database, so a written records request to the agency is the reliable route. Use this search only to find the right office.

County & town filings

The rezoning application, site plan, traffic and noise studies, staff report and every revision.

Search Papillion 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 Papillion 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.

Southwest Power Pool (Plains) — 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.
Nebraska Power Review Board — 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 41.150, -96.040 — 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

Nebraska briefing — rates, grid carbon, PUC contacts.

Other tracked projects in Nebraska

Google Omaha — Omaha, 2 mi In review
Meta Sarpy — Springfield (Sarpy County), 6 mi Under construction
Google Lincoln — Lincoln, 42 mi In review
Kearney Data Center — Kearney, 162 mi Awaiting decision

Cite this page: GridWatch AI, “Google Papillion”, aigridwatch.com/projects/google-papillion, 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).