Tech giant Google (GOOG, GOOGL) announced on Thursday that it will spend $ 7 billion this year on expanding its US facility footprint, adding at least 10,000 jobs in a host of cities, including Atlanta, Washington, DC , Chicago and New York.
The investment defies concerns about a possible technology downturn in 2021, as the widespread vaccination allows Americans to spend more time outdoors, and positions Google as a major private sector contributor to the economic recovery from the downturn. COVID-19.
In addition, the move will fund several metropolitan areas outside of Silicon Valley, allowing the company to hire a more inclusive workforce; all while confirming its commitment to California, where Google will invest $ 1 billion, Google CEO Sundar Pichai wrote in a blog post on Thursday.
“We are investing aggressively in the US in 2021,” Ruth Porat, the Chief Financial Officer of Google’s parent company Alphabet, told Yahoo Finance in a new interview. “We are both building on our existing major centers, but also expanding across the US.”
“We are not only increasing the number of jobs in the US, but in particular we are creating more jobs and investment for diverse communities in the US,” she adds.
The investment will enable Google to establish a workforce in New York City by 2028 that is twice as large as it had been 10 years earlier, the company said. More broadly, the company will spread funds across 19 states, including data center expansions in Nebraska, South Carolina, Virginia, Nevada and Texas.
‘It’s a journey’
While praising the potential benefits of the announcement for Google’s diversity, Porat acknowledged that the company still has a lot to improve in that area.
A diversity report published by Google last year found that black workers make up only 3.7% of the total workforce and 2.6% of leadership positions; Meanwhile, Latinx employees represent only 5.9% of the workforce and 3.7% of the leadership slots.
“There is a lot of work to be done,” says Porat. “We will continue to ensure that we put all the elements in place so that we can grow steadily with a workforce that reflects the world around us.”
“It’s a journey that is our top priority,” she adds. “We’ll keep working on it.”
Google had a strong performance in the second half of 2020, thanks in part to a resurgence in ad revenue from search and YouTube, with hundreds of millions of Americans trapped at home on digital devices. The company ended the year with staggering fourth-quarter revenues, bringing in $ 56.9 billion, up 23% from the same period last year.
But the company is also dealing with three antitrust cases, including one from the Justice Department and another from 38 attorneys general.
Porat spoke to Yahoo Finance editor-in-chief Andy Serwer on an episode of “Influencers with Andy Serwer,” a weekly series of interviews with leaders in business, politics and entertainment.
She joined Google as CFO in 2015, after more than a decade in senior banking roles at Morgan Stanley. Porat helped Google navigate the COVID-19 pandemic, drawing on her background in dealing with crises.
To begin her career, she worked at Morgan Stanley for weeks before the October 1987 market crash; and later advised the Treasury Department on the acquisition of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac and the New York Federal Reserve Bank over AIG during the 2008 financial crisis.
Speaking with Yahoo Finance, Porat said the surge in US investment will not detract from Google’s plans to expand business abroad.
“We are definitely continuing to grow globally,” she says. “I would like to underline that we are just very proud of the continued growth we have here in the US”
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