Google to open second data center in Latin America, to invest over $850 million

FILE PHOTO: People walk next to a Google logo during a trade fair in Hannover Messe, in Hanover, Germany, April 22, 2024. REUTERS/Annegret Hilse

(Reuters) - Alphabet's Google said on Thursday it will open its second data center in Latin America in the Uruguayan city of Canelones and invest more than $850 million in it.

Google opened its first data center in Latin America in Quilicura, which is near Santiago, the capital city of Chile, in 2015. It invested an initial amount of $150 million in the data center and spent an additional $140 million in 2018 for expansion.

"We hope our new data center in Canelones will be a significant contribution to the professional and technological development of Uruguay and the entire region," Google said in a blog post.

Reuters reported on Thursday that Google is considering building a "hyperscale" data centre close to Ho Chi Minh City in Vietnam and that the center would be ready in 2027.

In April, Google announced a $3 billion investment to set up a data center campus in Indiana and expand sites in Virginia. Google also said in May that it will invest $2 billion in Malaysia to develop its first data centre and Google Cloud region in the country.

(Reporting by Rishabh Jaiswal in Bengaluru)