Google Will Spend $13 Billion on Real Estate Expansion in 2019

Silicon Valley giant Google reportedly plans to spend $13 billion on real estate in 2019 as part of the company’s rapid expansion.

CNBC reports that Google CEO Sundar Pichai announced in a recent blog post that the company plans to expand into several key areas across the United States in 2019, spending approximately $13 billion to do so. The company plans to build data centers in Nevada, Ohio, Texas, and Nebraska, and also plans to double their workforce in Virginia. The company’s New York City campus at Hudson Square will also be expanded.

In the blog post, Pichai stated:

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.

The company’s rapid expansion and construction of data centers appears to be an effort to compete with Amazon and Microsoft in the world of cloud-computing. Cloud technology requires large data storage facilities with powerful and reliable computing resources for clients to utilize. The addition of more data centers will also help the company to run its search, Gmail and YouTube products.

Pichai also noted in his blog post that as the company grows, they are heavily investing in renewable energy resources:

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.

Pichai ended his blog post by thanking the states that Google plans to expand into, stating:

All of this growth is only possible with our local partners. Thank you for welcoming Google into your communities—we look forward to working together to grow our economy and support jobs in the U.S.

Read Pichai’s full blog post here.