Google Mesa data center, Mesa, Arizona

Google's data center in Mesa, Maricopa County, Arizona, covers about 187 acres at Elliot and Sossaman roads, in the area the city calls the Elliot Road Technology Corridor. The company broke ground in July 2023 on the $1 billion project, previously known as Redhawk, after first applying for tax breaks on the site in 2019. The first phase was due to open in July 2025, with full build-out planned across three phases by 2030.

Google chose air cooling for the site, citing the poor health of the region's watershed; a water-cooled data center of similar size can use more than 250 gallons of water per megawatt hour of electricity. Air cooling needs more electricity, so Google signed an eight-year deal with Salt River Project for 434 megawatts of renewable power, aiming for 80 percent carbon-free power within a year of opening. That renewable supply includes the 250 megawatt Sonoran Solar Energy Center and the 161 megawatt Babbitt Ranch wind project. An earlier estimate, reported by NBC News in June 2021 citing Bloomberg, had put the facility's water use at up to 4 million gallons a day; Google's later decision to cool the site with air rather than water was meant to avoid that level of use.

Arizona paused new applications to its Computer Data Center Program from July 1, 2026 through June 30, 2029. On August 31, 2026, Attorney General Kris Mayes asked state lawmakers to go further and pause approval of new data centers statewide, citing rising water and power demand; no vote on her proposal has been scheduled.