Google (NASDAQ: GOOG) revealed via a blog post yesterday that it plans to spend $13 billion in 2019 to expand its data center and office footprint in the U.S. The investments include expanding the company’s presence in 14 states. The dollar figure surpasses the $9 billion the company spent on such facilities in the U.S. last year.
In the blog, CEO Sundar Pichai wrote that Google will build new data centers or expand existing facilities in Nebraska, Nevada, Ohio, Oklahoma, South Carolina, Tennessee, Texas, and Virginia. The company will establish or expand offices in California (the Westside Pavillion and the Spruce Goose Hangar), Chicago, Massachusetts, New York (the Google Hudson Square campus), Texas, Virginia, Washington, and Wisconsin. Pichai predicts the activity will create more than 10,000 new construction jobs in Nebraska, Nevada, Ohio, Texas, Oklahoma, South Carolina, and Virginia. The expansion plans will put Google facilities in 24 states, including data centers in 13 communities.
“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 wrote.
In an earnings call February 4, Pichai revealed that Google’s capex for data centers, office space, and servers was $6.8 billion in the fourth quarter; parent company Alphabet Inc. reported total capex of more than $25 billion for 2018. The extensive capex outlay is consistent with a trend among the major internet content and cloud services providers to invest in more facilities. Synergy Research estimates that there were 430 hyperscale data centers worldwide at the end of 2018 (see “430 hyperscale data centers worldwide at end of 2018: Synergy Research”). The company added that it knew of another 132 that were either in planning or development.
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