Data centers in Santiago Metropolitan Region: 9 projects mapped

Imagery: Esri, Maxar

Google wants to build a US$200 million data center on about 23 hectares in Cerrillos, on Santiago's southern edge, and is waiting for the Environmental Assessment Service (SEA) to decide whether the project needs a full environmental review. Google filed on June 17, 2026, calling it a new, air-cooled project. On September 3 the community groups OLCA and Mosacat asked the SEA to require a full assessment with public participation. Google has told the press it has not yet decided to build.

Google's first design, approved in 2020, could draw up to 169 liters of water a second from the Santiago Central aquifer. In February 2024 the Second Environmental Court partly annulled that approval for failing to rule out harm to the aquifer, and Google later gave it up. The new filing keeps the same land, budget and substation plans but uses air cooling and 44 backup generators totaling about 120 megawatts. "Google is trying to override a ruling of the Second Environmental Court," said OLCA director Lucio Cuenca.

Most of the region's existing data centers are north of the city in Quilicura, including Google's and Microsoft's, around a wetland that activists say is drying out; a 2022 estimate put their water draw at about 1.5 billion liters a year. TECfusions plans a campus of up to 100 megawatts in Puente Alto. The jobs are few: permit filings show Google's Quilicura project would employ no more than 223 full-time operations staff. "Those jobs are very specialized, they can't be filled locally," Quilicura councilwoman Alexandra Arancibia told Rest of World.

Every project above is drawn from public records, filings and local reporting. Each row links to what it is based on. Statuses change, so check the source date before you rely on one. Found something wrong? Write to [email protected] and it gets fixed.