Storey County part of Google’s $400 million investment

On the second day of the school year at University of Nevada, Reno, Gov. Joe Lombardo, UNR President Brian Sandoval, and Google representatives gathered on the fourth floor of Joe Crowley Student Union to celebrate a special announcement.

Google spokesperson Kate Franko said the tech giant it is planning to invest more than $400 million in Nevada this year to help expand its data centers and cloud services infrastructure, mainly in Storey and Clark counties. Google also plans to contribute $500,000 to the National Forest Foundation to enhance the resilience of the Truckee River watershed and reduce wildfire risk in the area.

“Google’s presence here in Northern Nevada is strong,” Franko said. “And these are affirmations of Northern Nevada being a hub for technology and economic development.”

Former governor Sandoval talked about how the university is one of five colleges in the nation to be selected for the TechWise program designed by TalentSprint and supported by Google. Introduced in 2022, the 18-month program fully funded 20 UNR students through scholarships and stipends to help turn them into entry-level software engineers by the time they graduated.

“We’re one of the only universities in the country that has this,” Sandoval said. He also mentioned the Nevada Lithium Batteries and Other EV Material Loop (“The Lithium Loop” for short) that UNR initiated that aims to build a self-sustaining lithium lifecycle ecosystem with extraction, processing, manufacturing, and recycling all happening right here in Nevada.

“With a foundation of rich sources of lithium and materials essential to electrification, the Nevada Tech Hub is working to align and coordinate its innovation and economic development activities with established companies, startups, education, and workforce development organizations to enable this region to become a global lithium leader,” a news release from the U.S. Economic Development Administration states.

Sandoval joked with Lombardo on who coined the term “The Lithium Loop” to describe the goal.

“I do believe that no one does it better than Nevada,” Sandoval said. “It’s a privilege and an honor to be here.”

Google Global Head of Infrastructure & Sustainability Ben Townsend mentioned the company’s $500,000 contribution to enhance the sustainability of the Truckee River watershed as well as tree thinning and removal of natural fuels in the Tahoe National Forest all to help “retain water in the region.”

He said that Google met its goal of replenishing more water than it consumed in the Colorado River watershed in 2023.

“Google plans to invest more than $400 million in Storey County in just 2024 alone,” said Google Vice President of Data Centers Joe Kava. So far, that brings Google’s total investment in Northern Nevada since 2019 to $2.2 billion. “As we expand our presence, we are committed to doing that responsibly and sustainably.”

Back in June, Google announced that it entered into an agreement with NV Energy to power its Nevada data centers with advanced geothermal electricity, increasing the amount of carbon-free geothermal electricity injected into the local power grid to 115 megawatts. Kava indicated that it would continue buying more clean energy, “And we will pay for the investment without Nevadans seeing an increase in their electric bills. We are working together (with Nevada) to keep this state moving forward.”

Lombardo gave the final speech, beginning with, “Sandoval admonished me, saying that Google’s culture is to not wear a tie,” he said as he stripped it off. And even though Lombardo’s alma mater is UNLV, he did sport a wolf pin on his jacket for this occasion.

“I will take ownership (of the “lithium loop” coined term) and build upon that,” he jokingly said to Sandoval.

“Thank you to Google for hosting this at UNR and investing $400 million in numerous jobs and the economic growth vital to this community. Nevada has established itself as a premier destination for technology investment, and this investment further strengthens the sentiment that we are becoming a tech capital of the West,” Lombardo concluded.