Google isn’t just one of the largest tech companies in the Bay Area, it’s one of the world’s largest companies in general. But that’s not stopping it from getting even bigger.
On Thursday, Google announced its major U.S. expansion plans for the year of 2021. This involves investing more than $7 billion into its offices and data centers across 19 states. It’s also planning to create at least 10,000 new full-time Google jobs this year in the U.S. alone. Even for a company with over 135,000 employees, that’s an impressive number of full-time jobs to add in one year.
Although Google is expanding across the country, it’s still investing in its Silicon Valley headquarters. The company currently has a Bay View campus in Mountain View under construction that’s slated to open this year. Besides that, it plans to invest $1 billion in California this year.
“Coming together in person to collaborate and build community is core to Google’s culture, and it will be an important part of our future. 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,” Google CEO Sundar Pichai wrote in a blog post.
In addition to investing in its own California offices, Google has committed $1 billion to create affordable housing in the Bay Area. Part of this commitment involves repurposing $750 million worth of Google-owned land for residential housing, but the company has also said that it will establish a $250 million investment fund to create 24,000 affordable housing units by 2029.
On top of housing equity, Google is also committed to racial equity within its company. Google says that 2020 was its biggest year for hiring Black and Latinx employees in the U.S. The company will also continue to give financial support to racial justice organization and Black-owned businesses.
Because of Google’s size, its hiring and overall business decisions have a significant economic impact for the country, and in the communities it’s part of. For example, Google’s services brought $426 billion of economic activity to over two million American businesses, according to Google’s new 2020 U.S. Economic Impact Report. Google hopes that its 10,000 new jobs will bring high-paying salaries to communities across the U.S., and help the country recover from a year of economic hardship.
