Microsoft has broken ground on another data center campus in North Carolina.

“Microsoft is constructing the Lyle Creek data center starting March 2024,” the company said this week. “We anticipate that construction will continue for 18-24 months. The data center construction site is located in Conover on Highway 16, Catawba County, North Carolina.”

Conover is a city in Catawba County, some 40 miles north of Charlotte. According to the Conover City website, the site encompasses 220 acres. Known as Project Agate, the campus could span up to five buildings at full build-out.

Microsoft said the project’s general contractor, Morgan Corp, was preparing the site by excavating and crushing rock onsite; in some cases this involves controlled blasting in the early afternoon to break apart larger rocks.

Microsoft first announced plans to invest in North Carolina in 2022, pledging at least $1 billion for the development of four data centers in Catawba County over the next decade.

At the time, local press reported the data centers would be located along Tate Boulevard in Hickory, behind the Walmart in Conover, along Stover Court in Newton, and on 300 acres along Zeb Haynes Road west of Maiden.

Earlier this month, the company said it had broken ground on its Boyd Farms data center, located off Zeb Haynes Road in Maiden, a town in Catawba and Lincoln counties. The Maiden development, located some 40 miles northwest of Charlotte and 10 miles south of Conover, is reportedly known as Project Yoga.