Google on Tuesday revealed plans for its largest-ever investment in Germany, committing 5.5 billion euros ($6.4 billion) toward a new data center and related initiatives, as Europe intensifies efforts to compete in the global AI sector.
The California-based company's investment is "expected to secure around 9,000 jobs in Germany annually until 2029," the company announced in Berlin.
The billions will fund the construction of a new data centre in the Hessian district town of Dietzenbach, Philipp Justus, head of Google Germany, said.
The existing data centre in neighboring Hanau as well as Google's locations in Munich, Frankfurt and Berlin are to be expanded.
Vice Chancellor and Finance Minister Lars Klingbeil praised Google's plans as "genuine investments in the future in innovation, artificial intelligence, climate-neutral transformation and future jobs in Germany."
"That's exactly what we need right now," he said.
Digital Minister Karsten Wildberger said the U.S. firm's announcement shows how attractive Germany is as a location for digital infrastructure.
"We want to make Germany a leading location for data centers in Europe," he said.
High demand for cloud services is currently driving business not only for U.S.-based tech companies like Google, Microsoft and Amazon, but also for German providers such as the Schwarz Group, Ionos and Deutsche Telekom.
Just last week, Telekom and U.S. AI chip developer Nvidia announced that they plan to jointly invest in a data centre in Munich. The investment is worth around €1 billion.
According to industry association Bitkom, data centre operators in Germany will invest a total of around €12 billion this year.
