- Google doubled its capital expenditure spending in 2018 to $25.8 billion, which included spending on offices and tech infrastructure.
- Its cloud unit also got the lion’s share of new hires in the quarter, the CFO of parent company Alphabet said.
Original article: Business Insider
Google’s cloud computing efforts were a mixed bag in 2018 but the company on Monday said that it invested heavily in 2018, and will continue do so in 2019, albeit maybe not at the same pace.
During its year-end earnings report on Monday, Google revealed that it doubled its capital expenditures in 2018, to $25.5 billion, up from $12.6 billion in 2017. The hefty spending went towards everything from new office facilities to accommodate Google’s growing workforce to bolstering its infrastructure such as datacenters and servers.
It’s tough to say exactly who much of that capex went towards Google’s cloud business specifically, but the company has made it clear that investing in the cloud is a priority. Google said it launched its 18th Google Cloud region in the fourth quarter and pointed to plans for continued expansion in the US and abroad.
In comparison, Amazon spent $11.3 billion cash on capex in 2018, split between fulfillment operations (like warehouses) and AWS, it said. And Microsoft said it spent $16 billion.
