Google to spend $13 billion on real estate in 2019, expand into four states

Tech giant Google will invest $13 billion in data centers and offices in the United States over the course of 2019 as the company expands its U.S. operations and breaks ground for the first time in four states.

In a blog post Wednesday Google CEO Sundar Pichai wrote that the investments would include “major expansions in 14 states” including Ohio, Texas, Nebraska, and Nevada, which CNBC reports will be the first time the company has built facilities in those states.

{mosads}”This growth will allow us to invest in the communities where we operate, while we improve the products and services that help billions of people and businesses globally,” Pichai wrote.

The new facilities include Google data centers where the company says it will hire “tens of thousands” of workers across more than a dozen states as well as creating thousands of construction jobs initially.

Some of the investments will also go towards making the new Google campuses run on sustainable energy, according to the blog post.

“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,” the CEO writes. “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.”

Data centers allow Google to provide its core search engine services, as well as its popular YouTube video platform.

The company will have a presence of some type in 24 states following the expansion, according to Google’s blog, and will be upgrading and expanding facilities in Virginia, where the company will double its workforce according to CNBC.

Google’s announcement comes just two months after the company announced a $1 billion campus development project in New York, which it said would be open by 2022.

“In fact, we’re growing faster outside the Bay Area than within it, and this year opened new offices and data centers in locations like Detroit, Boulder, Los Angeles, Tennessee and Alabama. And as we continue to grow across the country, we look forward to calling New York City home for many years to come,” Google Chief Financial Officer Ruth Porat said at the time.