Google CEO Sundar Pichai speaks on stage during the annual Google I / O developer conference in Mountain View, California, May 8, 2018.
Stephen Lam | Reuters
Google says it plans to spend more than $ 7 billion on real estate in the United States in 2021, as it resumes spending after the Covid-19 pandemic.
The company said the money will go to the expansion of offices and data centers in 19 states, creating what it says is equivalent to at least 10,000 full-time jobs. $ 1 billion will go specifically to California.
“Meeting in person to collaborate and build a community is central to Google’s culture and will continue to be an important part of our future,” said CEO Sundar Pichai in a blog post on Thursday. “Therefore, we continue to make significant investments in our offices across the country, as well as in our home state of California, where we will be investing more than $ 1 billion this year.”
Google’s parent company, Alphabet, stopped spending on real estate last year after the pandemic and Google’s first year-over-year decline in revenue in the second quarter of last year.
Data center expansions come as the company aggressively grows its cloud business. The company released its operating results in its latest earnings report, revealing that it lost $ 5.61 billion in revenue of $ 13.06 billion last year. Google Cloud CEO Thomas Kurian told investors last month that he is focused on growing the business now, with a view to profitability in the future.
The company plans to return workers to the offices starting this fall. Pichai said earlier that Google would not adopt a permanent remote work plan, hoping that most employees will show up at designated offices three days a week starting in September.
As part of the expansions, Pichai said the company will add thousands of new features to its offices in Atlanta, Washington, DC, Chicago and New York.
“This will help bring more jobs and investments to diverse communities as part of our previously announced racial equity commitments,” said Pichai, adding that 2020 was the biggest year ever for hiring Google’s Black and Latinx employees in the United States.
The company is planning to open new offices in Seattle, Houston and Mississippi. She is planning several massive developments in several cities, including near her Mountain View, Calif. Headquarters, where she is incorporating housing.
Watch now: Google extends remote work, rejects permanent remote work