Google CEO Sundar Pichai speaks onstage at the annual Google I / O developer conference in Mountain View, Calif., May 8, 2018.
Stephen Lam | Reuters
Google says it plans to spend more than $ 7 billion on US real estate by 2021 as it resumes spending in the wake of the Covid-19 pandemic.
The company said the money will be used to expand offices and data centers in 19 states, creating at least 10,000 full-time jobs, according to the company. $ 1 billion will go specifically to California.
“Getting together in person to collaborate and build community is at the heart of Google’s culture and will remain an important part of our future,” CEO Sundar Pichai said in a blog post on Thursday. “So we will continue to make significant investments in our offices across the country, as well as in our home state of California, where we will invest more than $ 1 billion this year.”
Google parent Alphabet stopped its real estate spending last year in the wake of the pandemic and Google’s first year-over-year decline in the second quarter of last year.
The data center expansions come as the company aggressively grows its cloud operations. The company disclosed the operating results for that company in its latest earnings report, which revealed it lost $ 5.61 billion on $ 13.06 billion in sales last year. Thomas Kurian, CEO of Google Cloud, told investors last month that he is now focusing on growing the company with a view to long-term profitability.
The company plans to return employees to offices this fall. Pichai previously said Google would not adopt a permanent remote working plan, with the expectation that most employees will come to the assigned offices three days a week from September.
As part of the expansions, Pichai said the company will add thousands of new features in its offices in Atlanta, Washington, DC, Chicago and New York.
“This will contribute to more jobs and investment for diverse communities as part of our previously announced racial equity commitments,” said Pichai, adding that 2020 was the biggest year on record for Black and Latinx Google hiring in the US.
The company plans to open new offices in Seattle, Houston and Mississippi. It is planning several massive land developments in several cities, including near its Mountain View, California headquarters where it is taking up housing.
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