Google to invest $1 billion in UK data center amid company layoffs
Google recently announced plans to build a $1 billion data center near London as part of its continued expansion into the UK.
The new data center will support the company's services including Google Cloud, Search, Maps and YouTube. Google says the new 33-acre site will bring jobs for both on-site workers and construction workers.
According to a blog post from Google, the new data center will be designed to run carbon-free by the end of the decade:
We have set an ambitious goal to run all of our data centers and campuses on carbon-free energy (CFE) every hour of the day by 2030.
Layoffs continue
According to Cointelegraph, Google plans to lay off hundreds of employees as soon as early 2024 and continue to lay off jobs throughout the year.
Google CEO Sundar Pichai said the cuts were needed so the company could create “capacity” to invest more in priority technologies such as AI.
In the year By 2023, Google has decided to reduce its global workforce by 6%, laying off more than 12,000 workers. Pichai said the company expects to lay off fewer employees in 2024.
Coming from behind
Over the past year, countless analysts have noted that Google appears to be falling behind its main artificial intelligence rival, Microsoft.
While Google will perform well in 2023, Microsoft will overtake Apple as the world's most valuable company in 2024. This is largely due to the popularity of AI products developed in partnership with ChatGPT maker OpenAI.
Google's expansion could signal an internal shift amid ongoing rivalries. Mountain View has long touted itself as an “AI-first” company; However, some analysts believe that the delayed stance is self-inflicted.
GlobalData's head of thematic intelligence, Cyrus Mewala, said in an interview with CNBC last year that Google may be determined to bring its own AI products to market ahead of competitors like Microsoft because it “could eat into the core business” of Google Search.
The current ambitious expansion seems to indicate that Google plans to move aggressively to establish a land.
Related: Vatican experts say AI is ‘absolutely positive' product of human imagination.
