IOWA — Officials with tech giant Google today (Wednesday), announced plans to invest more than $50 million in Iowa in 2022. Nationally, Google plans to invest approximately $9.5 billion in offices and data centers and create at least 12,000 new full-time Google jobs across the U.S. this year. Sundar Pichai, CEO of Google and Alphabet says “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. 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.”

Google has called Iowa home for more than a decade with a data center in Council Bluffs that has created jobs for over 900 people in a variety of full-time and external supplier roles, including computer technicians, engineers and various food services, maintenance and security roles. Council Bluffs Mayor Matt Walsh says “Google’s new $50 million investment announced today underscores their commitment to our Council Bluffs community. Building upon the $5 billion already invested in the Council Bluffs data center facilities, this new investment will continue to provide a ripple of economic impact throughout the state.” Google’s data center in Council Bluffs came online in 2009.

Google also released their 2021 Economic Impact Report today, sharing how Google helped provide $1.45 billion of economic activity for thousands of Iowa businesses, nonprofits, publishers, creators and developers last year. More than 187,000 Iowa businesses received requests for directions, phone calls, bookings, reviews, and other direct connections to their customers from Google in 2021. The company has awarded more than $3 million to local schools and nonprofits in Iowa.