Google Plots Big Expansion in India as US Restricts Visas
3 91Alphabet is plotting to dramatically expand its presence in India [non-paywalled source], with the possibility of taking millions of square feet in new office space in Bangalore, India's tech hub. From a report: Google's parent company has leased one office tower and purchased options on two others in Alembic City, a development in the Whitefield tech corridor, totaling 2.4 million square feet, according to people familiar with the deal. The first tower is expected to open to employees in the coming months, while construction on the remaining two is set to conclude next year.
Options in the real estate industry give would-be tenants the exclusive right to rent, or in some cases buy, a property at a predetermined price within a specific time frame. It's also possible Alphabet will not exercise the option to use the additional towers. If it does take all of the space, the complex could accommodate as many as 20,000 additional staff, which could more than double the company's footprint in India, said the people, asking not to be identified because the plans aren't public. Alphabet currently employs around 14,000 in the country, out of a global workforce of roughly 190,000.
[...] US President Donald Trump's visa restrictions have made it harder to bring foreign talent to America, prompting some companies to recruit more staff overseas. India has become an increasingly important place for US companies to hire, particularly in the race to dominate artificial intelligence.
3 comments
Old boss once told me.. (Score: 5, Insightful)
by TigerPlish ( 174064 ) on Tuesday February 03, 2026 @02:12PM (#65967024)
Old boss once told me, he'd set up a complete call center for a US client in India, for less than he paid any one of his engineers, maybe 10 years before he and I worked together.
Just move to India already, Google. It's cheaper, and no burdensome regulations. You'll be free to exploit your workers far more than you do here.
I mean, that's Google's purpose, right? Pay as least as possible for everything, including people and talent?
Indian employees best deployed in India (Score: 5, Interesting)
by unixisc ( 2429386 ) on Tuesday February 03, 2026 @03:14PM (#65967200)
Fully endorse this. If they want to hire Indians, for whatever reasons, just have offices in India! Instead of uprooting your employees from their homes in India, where they have families, relatives and others who can support them, just have your offices there. No need to struggle w/ visas, nor pay them US salaries (which they'd have to if they were to afford the living costs in the US). Pay them what is standard there, and set up the operations there accordingly
I have seen people, particularly the "free trade" crowd, argue that bringing them here brings jobs to Americans, since these new immigrants/guest workers have to buy products here locally. Doesn't quite work, since those here temporarily would tend to convert dollars to rupees, determine that things are too expensive, and avoid shopping all that much. Also, if we want assimilation w/ US culture, it won't happen as much, as for most of them, English is a second language. If people don't like the "press '2' for Espanol", imagine when they have to press different numbers for Hindi, Gujarati, Telegu, et al. We'll get one more country added to the culture wars, and local resentment against foreigners
Instead, build offices in different Indian cities for employees based in various places, so that they need not relocate. Even in the above story, Bangalore is already too congested, so Google would be better off building different campuses in other cities as well, such as Pune, Noida, Chennai, Kolkata and so on
They don't care about Americans or Europeans (Score: 5, Insightful)
by xack ( 5304745 ) on Tuesday February 03, 2026 @03:33PM (#65967224)
Like I said in the article about the fibre internet shortage there are millions of Americans who learned to code and inhertited significant student debt in the process and have the skills that Google needs, yet they just want the cheap labour while rolling in YouTube Premium Subscription money. I'd even say that Google and the Tech industry is racist at this point just this time around it's Indian Supremacy instead of White supremacy.