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Google broke ground Thursday on a pair of data centers in Dorchester County, publicly announcing for the first time an investment of $2 billion that will employ 200 people. The Alphabet Inc. subsidiary also said it will spend $1.3 billion to expand its Berkeley County center.

The tech giant took the opportunity to firmly plant its flag in South Carolina, even amid Statehouse discussions surrounding the massive energy needs of data centers and the new power plants utilities say are necessary to both serve a growing state and wean it off coal-fired power.

Alphabet, Google’s owner, and other major technology companies such as Meta, the parent company of Facebook, have invested heavily in data centers needed for their artificial intelligence ambitions.