Executive Summary
Google announced a $15 billion investment in a new data center campus in New Florence, Missouri. The company will pay for 100% of the power required for the facility. This is a market not traditionally associated with large-scale data center development.
The Players
Google is the sole investor and operator. New Florence, Missouri—a town of roughly 750 residents in Montgomery County—represents a dramatic departure from traditional hyperscaler site selection.
The Numbers
$15 billion is a big investment. Google has contracted over 1 GW of capacity through its partnership with St. Louis-based electric utility Ameren, and the company is developing over 500 MW of additional capacity.
So What?
This is a market signal, not just a real estate deal. Hyperscalers are moving aggressively into secondary and tertiary markets where power is available, permitting is faster, and land costs are a fraction of Northern Virginia or Silicon Valley. Missouri offers access to both renewable energy (wind-rich plains to the west) and reliable baseload from Ameren’s nuclear and gas fleet.
For power developers and investors: the bottleneck is no longer demand—it’s supply. If you can deliver firm, dispatchable power in markets with available transmission and cooperative utilities, hyperscalers will write nine-figure checks. The window to lock down sites near underutilized substations and generation assets is closing fast.
For utilities: this is what load growth looks like in 2026. If you’re not building relationships with hyperscaler site selection teams and pre-positioning generation capacity, you’re leaving billions on the table.
Source: Connect CRE, May 27, 2026
