Alphabet Inc.’s Google plans to spend $13 billion on data centers and offices across the U.S. in 2019, saying the investment will create thousands of new construction jobs in states outside its traditional base of California.

The new spending builds on $9 billion the company put into expanding across the country last year. By the end of 2019, Google will have a presence in 24 states, Chief Executive Officer Sundar Pichai said in a blog post on Wednesday. As many as 10,000 new construction jobs could be created in Nebraska, Nevada, Ohio, Texas, Oklahoma, South Carolina and Virginia, Pichai said.

• he thought the internet would be about as significant as the fax machine on the economy
• he prefers government programs over successful business (probably a financial reason for this....)