Google to Invest $13 Billion in New US Offices, Data Centers

The Google logo at the company's headquarters in Mountain View, Calif. (Marcio Jose Sanchez/AP Photo File)

SAN FRANCISCO—Google plans to invest more than $13 billion this year on new and expanded data centers and offices across the United States.

CEO Sundar Pichai announced the news in a blog post on Feb. 13, emphasizing the company’s growth outside its Mountain View, California, home and across the Midwest and South.

“2019 marks the second year in a row we’ll be growing faster outside of the (San Francisco) Bay Area than in it,” he wrote.

Google will build new data centers in Nevada, Texas, Oklahoma, Nebraska, Ohio, South Carolina, and Virginia. Pichai estimated the construction of the new centers will employ 10,000 workers.

It makes good political sense for Google to highlight its expansions outside coastal cities, said Center For Research and Analysis (CFRA) Research analyst Scott Kessler. United States legislators have paid increasing attention to Google and other big tech companies in the past year, and are considering passing privacy laws to regulate the companies’ reach.

Investing more widely across the United States could help it curry favor with federal politicians and officials, he said.

Google is focused on expanding its cloud-computing business, a market where it faces stiff competition from larger rivals Amazon and Microsoft.

The company will have a physical presence in 24 states by the end of the year. It currently has locations in 21 states, and is expanding into Nevada, Ohio, and Nebraska.

Its expansion is likely also a way to attract new employees, Kessler said. Google will add an office in Georgia, and expand its offices in several cities including in Seattle and Chicago.

Google said it spent more than $9 billion on similar expansions across the country last year.

Google did not give an exact number of employees it expects to hire as a result of the 2019 expansions, but said it would be “tens of thousands” of full-time workers.

(Justin Sullivan/Getty Images)

Google Opens New Office in Berlin With Eye on Expansion

Philipp Justus (L), Vice President Google Central Europe, Sundar Pichai (C), CEO of Google and Senior Director Public Policy and Government Relations Annette Kroeber-Riel (R) pose for the media before the festive opening of the Berlin representation of Google Germany in Berlin, Germany on Jan. 22, 2019. (Carsten Koall/Getty Images)

BERLIN—American tech giant Google has opened a new office in Berlin that it says will give it the space to expand in the German capital.

CEO Sundar Pichai said Jan. 22 the space means Google could more than double the number of Berlin employees to 300. Google currently has 1,400 employees in Germany.

Pichai says “the city has long been a capital of culture and media. Now it’s also home to a fast-growing startup scene and an engine for innovation.”

Google has faced regulatory headwinds in Europe, and was fined $57 million (50 million euros) in France, on Jan. 21, for alleged violations of European data privacy rules.

Google Central Europe vice president Philipp Justus didn’t directly address the fine, but said Google’s committed to transparency and clarity on what data is collected and how it’s used.