Google plans to invest about $9.5 billion in U.S. offices and data centers this year, up from $7 billion in 2021, as it opens new branches and expands existing facilities.
Alphabet Inc.’s Google said Wednesday that the investment in more than a dozen states will create at least 12,000 new full-time jobs by the end of the year. The search-engine giant plans to open a new office in Atlanta, boost its presence in New York, build out its campus in Boulder, Colo., and invest in data centers across the country, it said.
“It might seem counterintuitive to step up our investment in physical offices even as we embrace more flexibility in how we work,” Alphabet and Google Chief Executive Sundar Pichai wrote in a blog post. “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.”
Over the past five years, Google has invested more than $37 billion in offices and data centers in 26 states, it said.
In March 2021, Google announced plans to spend $7 billion during the year to expand its footprint of U.S. offices and data centers, including pouring $1 billion into its home state of California.
Last year, the company said it was buying a Manhattan office building for $2.1 billion. The deal for the new building on Manhattan’s West Side was the most expensive sale of a single U.S. office building since the start of the pandemic.
