Google Reignites Office Space Investment With $7 Billion Plan

Google has revealed plans to spend $7 billion on real estate in 2021. The tech giant had paused spending during the COVID-19 pandemic, but says it’s committed to resuming expansion and in-person work, CNBC reported.

Google will be expanding offices across 19 states as well as investing in cloud infrastructure. The expansion is expected to bring at least 10,000 new jobs. It’s a bold move considering it follows Google’s first-ever revenue decline last year.

“Coming together in-person to collaborate and build community is core to Google’s culture, and it will continue to be an important part of our future,” CEO Sundar Pichai wrote in a blog post announcing the investment. “So we continue to make significant investments in our offices around the country, as well as our home state of California, where we will be investing over $1 billion this year.”

While the pandemic has many tech companies reconsidering whether in-person meetings are truly necessary, Google had previously said they would be continuing office work. Employees will need to show up at least three days a week starting in September.

California is one of the big winners of Google’s plan. Industry titans like Elon Musk have been turning away from the state, but Google has enough faith to expand its offices to include housing options.

Diversity was another focus. Pichai said the thousands of new employees from Atlanta, Washington, D.C., Chicago and New York would add new perspectives to the company while benefiting underprivileged communities.

“This will help bring more jobs and investment to diverse communities as part of our previously announced racial equity commitments,” he wrote. “We’re already making progress: 2020 was our largest year ever for hiring Black and Latinx Googlers in the U.S., both overall and in tech roles.”