by McKenna Ross, Las Vegas Review-Journal, April 19, 2022
Google plans to spend $30 million in Nevada on improvements, site expansion, donations and other investments this year, company officials announced at its Henderson facility Tuesday.
Google plans to improve its Southern Nevada data center and expand its second data center, located in Storey County, among other plans. The investment also includes a partnership with the Nevada Department of Employment, Training and Rehabilitation to offer Google Career Certificates and a $100,000 donation to the Clark County School District to expand its career and technical education programming.
Officials declined to specify the scope or details of the projected spending at the Henderson location. The 64-acre site on Warm Springs Road supports Google Services in North America and cloud computing services, officials said in 2018 when the site was planned. The investment is part of a nationwide plan to invest $9.5 billion in Google offices and data centers, the company said.
The goal is to make operations and internet services faster and more secure, said Jacquelline Fuller, president of Google’s philanthropic arm Google.org.
“(Data centers) power our searches, help us to store our photos and our documents and our emails,” Fuller said. “Just finding my way this morning on Google Maps, we know it is powered through these data centers.”
Sen. Jacky Rosen, D-NV, welcomed the company’s growth plans, which are expected to hire more people to service the data center that already employs about 100 people. She also applauded its program outreach. The company and state partnered through DETR to offer scholarships for its Google Career Certificates program, with Spanish-language support. The program serves as online job training for tech positions such as program management, IT support, data analytics and user experience.
“These are jobs of the future in technology,” Rosen said. “They’re just waiting for people to be trained to take them.”
Fuller said the support can go beyond the tech ecosystem, noting the programming can better inform teachers in online learning or small businesses growing their digital audience.
“You can take these courses online at home, in your own timing, and within, say, a year, you can go from zero knowledge to a career that pays, say $60,000-plus, and gives you an opening into the tech economy,” Fuller said.
McKenna Ross is a corps member with Report for America, a national service program that places journalists into local newsrooms. Contact her at [email protected]. Follow @mckenna_ross_ on Twitter.