Google drops $42 million on Monroe County land for a data center. What we know.

Google has purchased about 950 acres of land off I-75 and Rumble Road in Monroe County to build a data center, according to county property records.

The land was purchased for about $42 million at the end of September, records show. A spokesperson from Google told The Telegraph Friday that the company plans on building a data center there, but does not yet have a timeline of when the project will be completed.

“While we do not have a confirmed timeline for development for the site, we want to ensure we have the option to further grow, should our business demand it,” the spokesperson said.

The land was rezoned to C-1 in November 2024 by the Monroe County Board of Commissioners with the intention of selling it to a tech company looking to build a data center.

As demand for artificial intelligence such as ChatGPT and other online services and social media sites has grown, data centers — which store computing machines and hardware — have proliferated across the country.

However, they don’t always receive a warm welcome. Data centers — which often go into rural areas for cheap land — have increasingly met opposition from local residents, and spawned litigation both to further and hinder their construction.

This has been the case in Monroe County. County commissioners unanimously shot down a proposal in August that would’ve rezoned another 900 acres of land for a potential data center project near Bolingbroke. The move came after hundreds of residents spoke out online and during meetings against the proposal.

The property owners — Otis Ingram, Holly Doss and Haley Newnam — sued the county, alleging that it improperly denied their proposal.

In nearby Twiggs County, commissioners approved rezoning land for a data center despite opposition from residents. The residents are now suing the county, alleging it violated its own rules by approving the rezoning.