Google and Alphabet CEO Sundar Pichai kicked off the morning at 6:04am with a $10 billion bang—tweeting that the company is planning to invest that much money in offices and data centers in dozens of states this year.
Long criticized for helping turn the Bay Area into an unaffordable playground that even rank-and-file tech company employees can’t afford, Pichai’s announcement is carefully crafted to position Google as a nationwide employer (“Google has a presence in 26 states”) with investments that will create thousands of jobs ranging from construction gigs to Google staff jobs to local business opportunities. “Everywhere we invest, we strive to create meaningful opportunities for local communities.” The announcement also repeats Google’s June-of-last-year commitment to invest $1 billion in Bay Area housing.
Plenty of new activity will be in the South, with growing offices and engineering teams in Atlanta, and expanded offices and data centers in Texas, Alabama, South Carolina, Virginia and Tennessee. Other notable expansions will be in Colorado, New York, Oklahoma, Ohio, Pennsylvania, California, Washington, Nebraska and Massachusetts. Google will also expand existing offices in cities like Detroit. Read the full plans here.
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