Google Project Peanut Richmond: $3B AI Data Center Chesterfield VA

Status: Under Construction (March 2026)   |   Location: Chester, Virginia

Project Overview

Project Peanut represents a transformative phase in Google’s long-term data center and AI infrastructure strategy in Virginia, positioning the Richmond region as an emerging secondary hub alongside Northern Virginia’s established data center corridor. Spanning approximately 300 acres near Meadowville Technology Park, the campus reflects a deliberate move to diversify geographic risk while tapping into available land, power scalability, and proximity to fiber routes. Each of the three planned buildings measuring 285,282 square feet has been designed with modular scalability in mind, enabling phased deployment aligned with demand growth in hyperscale cloud and AI workloads. A defining aspect of the project is its forward-looking energy strategy. Through its agreement with Commonwealth Fusion Systems, Google is securing 200 MW of future clean energy capacity from a pioneering commercial fusion facility, signaling a shift beyond traditional renewables toward next-generation baseload solutions. This aligns with Google’s broader 24/7 carbon-free energy goals and could establish a replicable model for powering high-density AI infrastructure. On the operational side, the deployment of advanced, energy-efficient server architectures is expected to significantly reduce power usage efficiency (PUE), while water stewardship remains a key focus. Integration with the EyeOnWater platform provides local authorities with transparent, real-time visibility into water consumption, addressing public concerns around resource strain. Importantly, Project Peanut is not a standalone development but part of a broader multi-site cluster strategy. Future nodes at Upper Magnolia Green and Watkins Centre South will expand Google’s footprint to over 1,500 acres in the county, enabling distributed load balancing, redundancy, and long-term capacity expansion. Collectively, this positions the region as a critical node in Google’s East Coast infrastructure network.

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