There comes a time in every person’s life when they recognize they must leave the nest of the familiar and move out of their childhood home. Granted moves like these are significantly more challenging if you don’t have access to the resources necessary to relocate but, assuming for sake of example that you do, leaving the nest is a challenging obstacle to overcome. I liken this milestone to the life of a goldfish. Studies conducted by myself at the curious age of seven years old indicated that goldfish would grow larger depending on the size of the bowl they were placed in. The same logic holds true for companies looking to expand their global horizons and tap into the cultural frameworks of the cities in which they relocate.
Over the course of the last several months, we’ve witnessed the tech industry’s biggest goldfish announce plans to spend billions on building larger tanks in metropolitan cities across the United States. Just last week, Tim Cook, chief executive officer of the known-to-few venture known as Apple (AAPL), announced that the company would be spending $1 billion in building costs for the construction of their new Apple campus in Austin, Texas.
“Apple is proud to bring new investments, jobs, and opportunity to cities across the United States and to significantly deepen our quarter-century partnership with the city and people of Austin. Talent, creativity, and tomorrow’s breakthrough ideas aren’t limited by region or zip code, and, with this new expansion, we are redoubling our commitment to cultivating the high-tech sector and workforce nationwide.”
–Tim Cook, Chief Executive Officer, Apple
Apple’s (AAPL) announcement stirred up similar hype felt by tech investors and stakeholders following news from a month earlier when Amazon (AMZN) officially announced that, after months of speculation, they finalized plans to build two new campuses in Long Island City in Queens, New York, and Crystal City, Virginia. The two campuses, collectively referred to as HQ2, will create over 50,000 employment opportunities for people residing in both locations to work for the largest online marketplace in the country. Following the headquarters announcements from Apple (AAPL) and Amazon (AMZN), industry experts assumed that it would only be a matter of time before another tech behemoth followed suit.
Less than a week after Apple’s (AAPL) announcement to build out their new home in the Lone Star State, Google (GOOGL) announced plans to invest $1 billion for a project to develop a new campus at Hudson Square in New York on Monday. The global search engine already employs 7,000 Googlers in New York, and the new campus will hopefully double that number over the course of the next ten years.
“Today we’re taking the next step in our commitment to our New York City presence by investing over $1 billion in capital improvements to establish a new campus, Google Hudson Square. When we came to New York City almost two decades ago, it was our first office outside of California. It’s now home to more than 7,000 employees, speaking 50 languages, working on a broad range of teams including Search, Ads, Maps, YouTube, Cloud, Technical Infrastructure, Sales, Partnerships, and Research.”
–Ruth Porat, Senior Vice President & Chief Financial Officer, Alphabet
Earlier this year, Google (GOOGL) spent several shekels on purchasing the hipster breeding ground known as Chelsea Market, for $2.4 billion. The company’s investments in both the Chelsea Market and the new Hudson Square location indicate that Google (GOOGL) is growing its global dominance via setting up shop in some of the world’s most influential neighborhoods. Additionally, this investment represents a tidal shift in American businesses that, in the wake of President Donald Trump, have adopted a new sense of patriotic business sense. In other words, companies are trying to create more domestic employment opportunities to grow the American workforce. William Floyd, Google’s (GOOGL) head of external affairs, told the New York Times that the company has “been growing steadily for the past 18 years without heralding trumpets, or asking for support from the government,” and Google Hudson Square is a testament to this success.
“Our investment in New York is a huge part of our commitment to grow and invest in U.S. facilities, offices and jobs.”
–Ruth Porat, Senior Vice President & Chief Financial Officer, Alphabet
