Google Ghlin data center, Wallonia, Belgium

Google's data center campus at Saint-Ghislain, in the province of Hainaut in Wallonia, Belgium, was the company's first data center in Europe, and Google has built five data centers and a solar plant on the 90-hectare site since 2009, DCD reported in 2023. Google does much of its business in Belgium through a company called Crystal Computing, which files the permits for the site at Baudour, a section of Saint-Ghislain next to Mons and Quaregnon.

The campus keeps growing: in November 2024, with a sixth building barely started, a planning permit was filed for a seventh on a plot along the rue des Roseaux, filling the last empty area of land Google owns there. The application covers a hall for servers, transformers, backup generators and batteries, air coolers and cooling towers, an electrical substation, a water tank, diesel tanks of more than 250 cubic meters and a new storm basin. In October 2025 Google announced a further 5 billion euros for 2026 and 2027 to expand the campus and add 300 full-time jobs, along with new carbon-free energy agreements. "This development makes us a dynamic innovative ecosystem, creating opportunities for other businesses too", said Saint-Ghislain Mayor Florence Monier.

Neighbors are less sure. Anne More, 68, lives 200 meters from the data center across the rue des Roseaux and told the Belgian magazine Médor in summer 2026 that the extension being built causes noise, and that she bought a headset so she would not hear it. "On ne sait rien. Google construit, agrandit, et on a à peine été consulté", she said. Médor reported that Google's growth in Wallonia raises questions about pressure on the power grid, a lack of transparency and unclear economic benefits. In the 2024 public inquiry, neighboring Quaregnon's mayor Damien Jenart said the town would not oppose the extension but regretted that it receives no tax revenue from Crystal Computing, while Saint-Ghislain declined to comment so as not to influence its residents.

Google is spreading across Hainaut and beyond: it has filed for a three-building campus at the Ecopôle park in Farciennes and bought a 36-hectare site in Ecaussinnes, near La Louvière.

Each new building needs a single class 1 permit, which goes to a public inquiry in Saint-Ghislain and the neighboring municipalities; for Quaregnon, the opinion it gives is only symbolic.