Google Lenoir data center, Lenoir, North Carolina

Google's data center at 708 Lynhaven Drive in Lenoir, Caldwell County, North Carolina, has operated since 2007, when Governor Mike Easley promised 210 jobs for people in and around the town. State records show Google withdrew in December 2008 from the Job Development Investment Grant those jobs were tied to, and many residents say the jobs never came.

"That seems really unfair," said Brittany Parsons, who has lived in Lenoir all her life. "If I'm a poor business and they're a trillion-dollar business, why won't they uplift me?" asked Duke Dula, who has cut hair in the town for 22 years. Google paid about $5.2 million in property tax in 2025, nearly 10 percent of Caldwell County's total property tax collections, in a county the state ranks among its most economically distressed.

On October 22, 2024 the Caldwell County Board of Commissioners and Lenoir City Council approved incentive grants of 50 percent of real property taxes and 85 percent of personal property taxes over 20 years for about 60 acres of expansion land, and Google agreed to put $6.8 million into the city's water system to supply it. Under a 2024 confidentiality agreement with the county and city, Google's energy use, water and sewer use and its exact employee count are kept secret, though media reports have put the headcount at about 400.

Google has since said it will spend $1 billion over two years to expand the Lenoir campus, with at least 30 new jobs anticipated, and it has started a $2 million energy fund with Blue Ridge Community Action, Blue Ridge Energy and Advanced Energy for weatherization and community solar. State Rep. Pricey Harrison has said officials should also track "residents' health impacts and quality of life" as the state weighs data center growth.