Google's Sundar Pichai pegs its 2020 US economic impact at $426B; pledges $7B investment

Google CEO Sundar Pichai on March 18 said that the Alphabet Inc-owned company will invest more than $7 billion in the United States in 2021 and create thousands of new jobs. The tech giant’s chief executive said in a blog post published Thursday that Google “wants to be a part” of America’s economic recovery from the COVID-19 pandemic and is planning on investing in some of the communities that are new to the California-based company while expanding across 19 other states. 

Sundar Pichai said, “Google wants to be a part of that recovery. That’s why we plan to invest over $7 billion in offices and data centres across the U.S. and create at least 10,000 new full-time Google jobs in the U.S. this year. This includes investing in communities that are new to Google and expanding in others across 19 states.”

Google to invest $1 billion in California

Google’s Thursday announcement came as the company faced pressure from dozens of US states that have accused the Internet giant of abusing its search dominance to eliminate competition in the market. While Pichai said that Google will continue to make “significant investments” in its offices across the United States, it will invest over $1 billion in California, the company’s home state. Pichai also pledged on behalf of Google that the company will boost the economic recovery of the nation rocked by the coronavirus pandemic. 

The Google CEO, who studied at IIT Kharagpur as well as in Chennai, also cited the company’s 2020 US Economic Impact Report released on Thursday saying, “In 2020, Google Search, Google Play, YouTube and Google advertising tools helped provide $426 billion of economic activity for more than 2 million American businesses, nonprofits, publishers, creators and developers.”

“In addition to helping businesses adapt and recover during the pandemic, the Android app ecosystem, including Google Play, helped support 1.9 million jobs in 2020—from software engineers and mobile applications developers, to marketing and human resources teams,” he added.

Earlier this month, Google also updated its productivity software and said that the workspace for the will be modified specifically for the frontline workers such as retail and health-care employees with an aim to allow the organisations to communicate in a more enhanced manner using mobile phones.