Google plans its first self-run data center in France on 195 hectares of the Ozans business zone at Étrechet, a village about 10 kilometers southeast of Châteauroux. Through a subsidiary, Tricolore Computing, it signed a five-year promise to buy the land on July 5, 2025, for a campus of about ten buildings needing more than 500 megawatts of power. Construction is meant to start in 2029, Châteauroux Métropole president Gil Avérous said in June 2026, and a public consultation run by France's National Commission for Public Debate is expected in October 2026.
The project has split Étrechet's town hall. On September 15, 2026, Mayor Florence Laurent resigned over "a disagreement on how opinions about the Google project on our territory are taken into account," after three deputy mayors and a councilor had already quit. She said the builders should make firm commitments on visual impact, PFAS chemicals, falling home values and road traffic, and that at a September 9 council meeting "we were told the project would go ahead." Avérous says every Ozans project has been approved by Étrechet and the other towns in the metropolitan area.
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Farmer Emmanuel de Saint Pol, whose land at Ozans was taken in 2012 for a Chinese investor's project that never came, told the Multinationals Observatory: "I'm mostly just tired of it." Jérémie Godet, the regional council's vice president for climate, says he is "convinced their strategy is to target regions where opposition is weak."
Power is the main hurdle. The department's high-voltage lines are full, and the grid operator RTE plans to double the 400,000-volt line from the Éguzon dam to Marmagne, with work not expected before 2032. Nearby in Buzançais, the Val-de-l'Indre community has sold 10 hectares to Decknet for a data center due to open in 2027.
Projects not tied to an area
Sites whose records name no county. Everything else is on the pages listed above.
Centre-Val de Loire1
| Project | Company | Status | Power | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Google ChateaurouxIndreExact site not confirmed | Proposed | 500 MW |
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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.