On Monday, Google’s vice president of data centers Joe Kava announced that the company would be expanding its data centre at the northern Groningen Eemshaven once again, this time to the tune of 500 million euros and 100 new jobs.
Translation by Traci White
Monday’s announcement also included the news that the American company is expecting to employ up to 1,000 workers for the construction of the new facilities.
Dagblad van het Noorden reports that the tech giant’s current round of expansion is due to increasing capacity demand for websites such as Gmail, Google Maps and especially YouTube. Google also has a data centre in Middenmeer in North Holland. Kava stated during the announcement that Google is continuing to expand facilities in the Netherlands due to the country’s digital infrastructure, access to sustainable energy sources and qualified personnel.
In March of last year, Google spent 500 million euros on another round of expansions at the industrial zone in the harbour at the mouth of the Eems. Once the expansion operations are completed, the company expects to have around 350 jobs, which is an increase of 100 jobs on top of their current staff levels.
In other Eemshaven data centre news, it was announced back in May that another American company, QTS, would be taking over a large facility at the Eemshaven and on the Zernike campus in Groningen.