Google’s 2013 Belgium data center expansion was reported as a €300 million investment, equivalent to the $390 million in the headline published at the time. The project concerned its facility in St. Ghislain, Belgium; it was a historical expansion, not a current announcement.
How much did Google invest to expand its Belgium data center?
DataCenterKnowledge reported on April 10, 2013, that Google planned to invest €300 million in an expansion of its St. Ghislain data center. Its headline expressed the amount as $390 million. The report is the direct source for the figure; the surfaced material does not include a contemporaneous Google announcement or public permit record independently confirming the exact amount. Read the 2013 DataCenterKnowledge report.
Where is Google’s Belgium data center?
The facility is in St. Ghislain, in southwest Belgium, southwest of Brussels, according to the 2013 report. Google’s campus page refers to the site as its St. Ghislain-Mons campus. Google says the campus uses chilled water from an industrial canal for cooling and a solar farm to help generate power. Those are details about the campus and should not be read as specifications for every building or for the particular works announced in 2013. Google’s St. Ghislain-Mons campus information.
What the 2013 report said about staffing and efficiency
DataCenterKnowledge described the facility as a European services hub and reported approximately 120 employees at the time. It also cited a 1.11 Power Usage Effectiveness (PUE) figure, a 12-month average for 2011. Both figures are historical: the staffing count is not a current headcount, and the PUE is not a current measurement.
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PUE compares a data center’s total energy use with the energy used by its IT equipment; a lower figure indicates that less energy is used outside the computing equipment. The 2011 average gives context for what the 2013 article reported, not a basis for assessing the campus’s present-day efficiency.
How the 2013 expansion differs from later Belgium investments
Google has described other investments at the same campus and in Belgium since the 2013 report. Their amounts and scopes are distinct:
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| When | Investment and scope | What was reported |
|---|---|---|
| 2013 | €300 million, reported by DataCenterKnowledge (headline: $390 million) | Planned expansion of the St. Ghislain data center. |
| 2018 retrospective | Approximately €250 million, reported by Google | An additional data center building; Google said total investment in Belgium had reached €1 billion at that time. It described approximately 350 full-time and contractor roles at the then-current site and anticipated more roles after the third building became operational. Google’s retrospective on its Belgium data center investment. |
| October 2025 announcement | €5 billion planned across 2026–2027, reported by Google | A distinct investment plan for Belgium that includes expansion of the St. Ghislain campus and 300 additional full-time jobs. It is not the 2013 project. Google’s 2025 Belgium investment announcement. |
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