Despite much of the industry doing the exact opposite, Google is investing $7 billion in office space and data centers, insisting in-person work is where it’s at.
In a blog post Thursday, Alphabet and Google CEO Sundar Pichai made it clear that in-person collaboration is a core component for the company, and will continue to play a significant role post-pandemic.
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. Outside of the Bay Area, we’ll keep growing our offices across the U.S., including plans to add thousands of roles in Atlanta, Washington, D.C., Chicago and New York. This will help bring more jobs and investment to diverse communities as part of our previously announced racial equity commitments. 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.
Pichai said Google plans to invest over $7 billion, in both offices and data centers, as well as create 10,000 new full-time jobs in the US in 2021.
Google’s plans come at a time when many companies in the tech industry are fully embracing remote work, even selling expensive real estate that is no longer needed. Outside the tech industry, companies such as Ford are also embracing remote work, making Google’s decision somewhat surprising.