Sundar Pichai announces $9.5 bn for new offices, data centres in US

Alphabet and Google CEO Sundar Pichai on Wednesday announced to invest approximately $9.5 billion for new offices and data centres in the US this year, creating 12,000 new full-time jobs and thousands more among local suppliers, partners and communities.

Pichai said that Google helped provide $617 billion in economic activity for millions of American businesses, nonprofits, creators, developers and publishers last year.

"In addition, the Android app economy helped create nearly two million jobs last year, and YouTube's creative ecosystem supported 394,000 jobs in 2020," he informed.

In the past five years, Google has invested more than $37 billion in its offices and data centres in 26 US states, creating over 40,000 full-time jobs.

"That's in addition to the more than $40 billion in research and development the company invested in 2020 and 2021," said the company.

Pichai said that while it might seem counterintuitive to step up investment in physical offices even as the world embraces more flexibility in how we work.

"Yet we believe it's more important than ever to invest in our campuses and that doing so will make for better products, a greater quality of life for our employees, and stronger communities," the Google CEO noted.

At the same time, the investments in data centres "will continue to power the digital tools and services that help people and businesses thrive".

"As we work towards running our offices and data centres on carbon-free energy 24/7 by 2030, we're aiming to set new standards for green building design".

In California, Google will continue to invest in offices and support affordable housing initiatives in the Bay Area as part of its $1 billion housing commitment.