Google announced that in its plans to invest $9.5 billion across the country, $2.3 billion will be designated for New York in 2022.
The company has called New York home since 2000 and purchased its flagship in Chelsea in 2010. This year, Google plans to further its NYC footprint with the purchase of additional office space for its over 12,000 employees based in the city.
“Google’s offices and data centers provide vital anchors to our local communities and help us contribute to their economies. As we embrace more flexibility in how we work, we believe it’s more important than ever to invest in our campuses and that doing so will make for better products, a greater quality of life for our employees, and stronger communities,” said Sundar Pichai, CEO of Google and Alphabet. “That’s why we’re planning to invest approximately $9.5 billion in U.S. offices and data centers this year, creating more than 12,000 Google jobs in communities across the country.”
Earlier this year, the company purchased the St. John’s Terminal building, marking the largest commercial real estate purchase since the pandemic began. The company also recently opened office space at Pier 57. Both of these spaces give Google the capacity to grow its New York workforce to over 14,000 in the coming years.
Last week, Google released its 2021 Economic Impact Report for New York, which highlights how the company helped provide $97.49 billion of economic activity for hundreds of thousands of businesses, nonprofits, publishers, creators, and developers in New York who used Google products last year. More than 1.26 million New York businesses received requests for directions, phone calls, bookings, reviews, and other direct connections to their customers from Google in 2021. One business in particular that was showcased was Sign-Speak in Rochester, which used Google’s digital tools to support its communication product for deaf and hard of hearing individuals.
“I tell my team that we win every time a deaf or hard of hearing individual says that Sign-Speak helped them move through the world more easily,” said Yamillet Payano, co-founder of Sign-Speak and 2021 Google for Startups Black Founders Fund honoree. “Firebase has really helped us with our analytics and making sure that we keep track of who’s using us when, as well as our success metrics.”
Google is continuing to support New York City communities, providing up to $100,000 to support 13 promising entrepreneurs of color through New York City and state through their Google for Startups Black Founders Fund. Last year, Google for Startups launched the NYC Recovery Challenge with Cornell Tech and Tech:NYC to show how tech can be used affectively to help support job creation for small businesses. Ten companies were selected to be NYC Recovery Challenge Fellows, with the top prize awarded $100K in non-dilutive funding.
In partnership with Social Finance, Year Up, and Merit America, Google announced in February that a national $100 million Google Career Certificates Fund would be put in place to train underrepresented workers for high-paying jobs in the tech sector while providing essential wraparound services such as professional coaching, interview prep, job placement assistance, and living stipends. The Fund is projected to drive over $1 billion in aggregate wage gains. Since 2017, Google has trained over 585,000 New Yorkers on digital skills in partnership with 450+ organizations in the state.
