SAN FRANCISCO: Alphabet’s Google says it will spend an additional US$9bil in Oklahoma over the next two years to expand cloud and artificial intelligence (AI) infrastructure.
The company will build a new data centre campus in Stillwater and expand its Pryor facility to bolster US AI and cloud capacity, alongside education and workforce programmes.
Intensifying competition among Big Tech companies has prompted them to spend heavily on building new data centre sites and skills development amid booming demand for AI services.
Google said that a portion of the spending is included in the capital expenditure plan for 2025 it previously announced, while the remainder is earmarked for the future. Last month, Alphabet raised its annual capital spending plans to about US$85bil from US$75bil previously, and signalled more to come next year.
Alphabet and its peers have defended their heavy AI spending as essential to fuelling growth and improving products amid high competition from Chinese rivals and investor frustration over slower-than-expected returns.
Google also committed US$1bil to AI education and training for US higher education institutions and non-profits last week.
Rivals including OpenAI, Anthropic and Amazon have made similar pushes around AI in education.
More than 100 universities have signed on to Google’s initiative so far, including some of the nation’s largest public university systems such as Texas A&M and the University of North Carolina.
Apple also announced last week that it plans to spend US$600bil in the United States over the next four years. — Reuters
