Google will set up a data center region in Querétaro to serve its cloud computing business, state authorities announced Monday.
The California-based tech giant will join major companies such as Microsoft and Amazon Web Services in the Bajío region state. Its Google Cloud division is expected to begin operations in Querétaro in 2025.
Governor Mauricio Kuri met with Google executives on Monday morning and subsequently told a press conference that the company would set up its first data center region in Mexico in Querétaro.
A data center region is a cluster of data centers in close proximity to each other.
The Google Cloud data center region in Querétaro — which will become the company’s third such region in Latin America — will primarily serve Mexico, but will also have the capacity to offer services to other countries in the region, according to Sustainable Development Minister Marco Del Prete.
State authorities didn’t reveal the location of the planned data region or say how much Google planned to invest in it. Del Prete said that information would remain confidential for the time being due to what he called competitiveness reasons.
Without mentioning any monetary figure, Kuri said that Google’s outlay in Querétaro will be substantial.
“We should feel very proud … that these kinds of companies come to Querétaro — Amazon, Microsoft [and now] Google. Google is also coming with a very big investment for Querétaro,” the governor said.
He added that he and other officials would soon meet with the Google CEO, Sundar Pichai.
Del Prete said that Google’s decision to invest in Querétaro “confirms the vocation of the state as a data center valley.”
“… Data centers are business facilities that we depend on today. … All our data is concentrated in a data center,” he said.
Del Prete said that Querétaro is an attractive place to set up a data center due to the state’s “strategic location” in the center of the country.
“But we also have to mention … the security the state has, because it’s a place where investments are respected, where the investor is protected with the full range of legal protection,” he said.
“In addition, there is transport infrastructure and investment is being made in energy infrastructure. That’s what cloud [computing services] need to operate,” Del Prete said.
Microsoft opened its Hyperscale Cloud Data Center Region in Querétaro in May, four years after the company revealed its intention to invest US $1.1 billion to drive digital transformation in Mexico.
Amazon Web Services announced in February that it intended to invest more than US $5 billion in a cluster of data centers in Querétaro. The company already has a “local zone,” or computing hub, in the state.
“It’s now the three big [tech companies], as well as many others, that are setting up in Querétaro,” Del Prete said.
One of the other companies establishing data centers in Querétaro is United States IT company CloudHQ, which intends to invest $3.6 billion in the state.
Among the benefits the data centers will bring to Querétaro are employment, innovation and new technology, Del Prete said.
He downplayed water concerns, asserting that data centers’ use of water is not as excessive as some people believe. A data center’s water usage is comparable to that of an office building, Del Prete said.
The sustainable development minister anticipated that more than $10 billion in data center-related investment will flow into Querétaro over the next 10 years.
With reports from El Economista and Diario de Querétaro
