Move over, Amazon.
After Google-parent Alphabet more than doubled its capex spend in 2018, Google on Wednesday announced plans to spend $13 billion on data centers and office space in 14 states, including Nevada, Nebraska, Ohio, Texas, Oklahoma, South Carolina and Virginia.
Courtesy of WSJ
The company will hire tens of thousands of employees to work at the new facilities, while the projects will enable the creation of 10,000 new construction jobs.
After the expansion is finished, Google will have infrastructure in 24 states, and data centers in 13 towns.
Here’s more from the blog post written by Google CEO Sundar Pichai.
Today we’re announcing over $13 billion in investments throughout 2019 in data centers and offices across the U.S., with major expansions in 14 states. These new investments will give us the capacity to hire tens of thousands of employees, and enable the creation of more than 10,000 new construction jobs in Nebraska, Nevada, Ohio, Texas, Oklahoma, South Carolina and Virginia. With this new investment, Google will now have a home in 24 total states, including data centers in 13 communities. 2019 marks the second year in a row we’ll be growing faster outside of the Bay Area than in it.
This growth will allow us to invest in the communities where we operate, while we improve the products and services that help billions of people and businesses globally. Our new data center investments, in particular, will enhance our ability to provide the fastest and most reliable services for all our users and customers. As part of our commitment to our 100 percent renewable energy purchasing, we’re also making significant renewable energy investments in the U.S. as we grow. Our data centers make a significant economic contribution to local communities, as do the associated $5 billion in energy investments that our energy purchasing supports.
Here’s a breakdown of the new hires and projects:
Midwest
- Expanded presence in Chicago
- New data centers in Ohio and Nebraska
- Moving Wisconsin office into larger space
- Last November, Google opened new Detroit office in Little Caesar’s Arena
South
- Virginia workforce will double
- New offices will be built in Georgia (workforce will double there as well)
- Data centers in South Carolina and Oklahoma will expand
- New office and data center in Texas
Northeast
- New office space in Massachusetts
- NYC Hudson Square campus will expand
West
- First data centers in Nevada
- Washington office will expand
- New investments in Bay Area
- Redevelopment of the Westside Pavillion and the Spruce Goose Hangar in the Los Angeles area will continue
While Google’s recent development spending has been focused on diversifying the business away from advertising, the company’s intensive capex spending will likely continue being a concern for investors. Though only weeks ago Alphabet CFO Ruth Porat said the company’s spending would “moderate quite significantly this year”…which would suggest that there won’t be more announcements like this one coming in the near future.
Spying centers ….. fixed it