Google CEO Sundar Pichai focuses on job creation, to spend $13 bn on facilities

Search engine giant Google is planning to spend $13 billion on data centers and offices across the USA this year, reported Bloomberg.

Google says that the investment will create thousands of new construction jobs in the country other than the company’s traditional California base. The new spending builds upon $9 billion, Google invested into expanding in US in 2018. As per the report, Google will have offices and data centres in 24 states by the end of this year, its Chief Executive Officer, Sundar Pichai announced in a blog on Wednesday.

Pichai added that there would be around 10,000 new construction jobs in Nebraska, Nevada, Ohio, Texas, Oklahoma, South Carolina and Virginia because of this. Hiring double the number could help Google broaden its political influence even as lawmakers start to ask difficult questions on data-driven business model of the giant and its privacy policy, Bloomberg opines.

Last year, conservative politicians accused Google of a left-wing bias during Congressional hearings citing its employees which are mostly based in California which is often seen as liberal.

Google’s spending also underscores how much money Google is willing to invest into data centers, a key area for its evolving cloud-services business in addition to supporting its core businesses in search and ad products. In terms of revenue, Google shows a continued upward trend, margins are weighing down due to cost.

Besides Google, Apple is also pouring $1 billion in new offices in Austin, bringing about 15,000 new jobs to the capital of Texas and so is Amazon.com Inc. Amazon is also planning to bring thousands of new jobs in New York City and Virginia, said the report.