Google Considers Building Data Center in Lea County, New Mexico, United States

en.Wedoany.com Reported - On September 14, Google stated that it is considering building a new data center project in Lea County, New Mexico, United States, and has begun communicating with the local community regarding project development. The project is still in the preliminary discussion stage, and the specific construction scale, investment amount, site selection scope, and construction timeline have not yet been determined.

Google stated that if the project moves forward, the company will bear all energy and related infrastructure costs used by the data center and will manage the project's water resource usage. The company plans to communicate with local residents during project development regarding issues such as electricity, water resources, and infrastructure.

Lea County passed relevant requirements for data center projects in February 2026, listing groundwater protection and local energy prices as conditions for data center development. County government documents require restrictions on data center cooling methods that could lead to excessive groundwater consumption, and also propose that data center construction must not pass on new energy costs to local residential, commercial, and industrial users; projects involving local fiscal arrangements must also cover the county government, school districts, community colleges, hospital districts, and relevant municipalities.

Lea County is located in southeastern New Mexico. The local government has continued to advance policies related to data centers and artificial intelligence infrastructure in 2026, with power supply methods, cooling systems, and groundwater use all included in the scope of project review. The Lea County project disclosed by Google has not yet entered the formal construction stage.