Google has pledged more than $800 million to support small and medium-sized businesses, health organizations and healthcare workers dealing with the COVID-19 pandemic. The aid will come in a mix of advertising credits and cash.
“As the coronavirus outbreak continues to worsen around the world, it’s taking a devastating toll on lives and communities,” CEO Sundar Pichai said in a blog post published Friday. “Together, we’ll continue to help our communities — including our businesses, educators, researchers and nonprofits — to navigate the challenges ahead.”
The company is dedicating $250 million in ad credits for the World Health Organization and other government agencies working to keep the public informed about the pandemic. Another $20 million in ad credits is being given to financial institutions and non-governmental organizations (NGOs) so they can run public service announcements on relief funds and other resources for SMBs. Google is also allocating $340 million in ad credits to SMBs with active accounts, which will be usable until the end of the year.
Another $200 million in Google Cloud research credits is going to academic institutions and researchers to help them better “study potential therapies and vaccines, track critical data and identify new ways to combat COVID-19,” according to Pichai.
Google has also established a $200 million investment fund to support NGOs and financial institutions providing small businesses around the world with access to capital to help them weather this storm. Plus, the company has increased its annual gift match offer to employees from $7,500 to $10,000, which means Google employees can now give up to $20,000 to organizations in their communities.
Additionally, Pichai says the company is working with one of its supply chain partners to ramp up production of two to three million face masks over the next few weeks for the CDC Foundation to help offset the risk of a nationwide shortage.
Google is joining several other Silicon Valley tech giants in its coronavirus-related efforts. Apple has launched a new COVID-19 app and website that lets users screen themselves for the virus, Facebook has committed $100 million to help local news outlets cover the pandemic and Salesforce is making its platform free to healthcare teams and pledging to not lay off any employees. All three of these companies have promised to donate face masks to healthcare workers too.
