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Google to spend $13 billion on US data centers, offices

Most of the expansion will be in the Midwest, South and East Coast -- far from the company's Silicon Valley home.

Richard Nieva Former senior reporter
Richard Nieva was a senior reporter for CNET News, focusing on Google and Yahoo. He previously worked for PandoDaily and Fortune Magazine, and his writing has appeared in The New York Times, on CNNMoney.com and on CJR.org.
Richard Nieva
2 min read
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Google held a ribbon cutting last year at one of its new data centers.

Google

Google is growing outside its home in the San Francisco Bay Area.

CEO Sundar Pichai on Wednesday said the search giant is investing $13 billion in data centers and offices around the country, mostly in the Midwest, East Coast and South. That includes new and expanded data centers in Ohio, Nebraska, Oklahoma, South Carolina and Texas. New and expanded office locations include sites in Virginia, Georgia and Chicago.

In the west, Google is opening its first data center in Nevada and expanding offices in Washington and California.

Pichai said the expansion will bring the company's corporate presence to 24 states in all. He also said the investment would let Google hire "tens of thousands" of new employees and create 10,000 construction jobs in states where the new facilities are being built.

"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," Pichai wrote in a blog post. "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."

The expansion comes as tech giants, confronted with the effects of globalization and digital automation, have faced pressure to invest more in US infrastructure and economies -- especially in areas outside of high tech hubs like Silicon Valley or New York.

Two years ago, Pichai launched an effort called "Grow with Google," which pledged $1 billion in new initiatives aimed at training and educating workers to help them find jobs and grow their businesses. He said the company would spend the money over the next few years to fund grants to nonprofits globally as part of efforts to prepare people for the "changing nature of work."

Aside from job creation, the new investment may be a political boon for Google in another way. When Pichai was grilled by Congress in December, several members of the then-Republican led House of Representatives hit Google with accusations of anti-conservative bias. One of the Pichai's responses was that Google was growing faster outside the Bay Area -- known for its liberal politics -- than the company was growing inside it.

On Wednesday, Pichai reiterated that point.

"2019 marks the second year in a row we'll be growing faster outside of the Bay Area than in it," he wrote.

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