Like Amazon, Google’s headlong growth has brought the need for giant new facilities that extend its domestic reach well beyond its current headquarters. That has led to the search for locations with enough space to house large numbers of staff in proximity, along with the chance to tap into new labour markets. Last year, Google revealed plans for a campus for 20,000 workers in San Jose, not far from its headquarters in Silicon Valley. Amazon’s “beauty contest” was widely seen as a way for the company to play cities off against each other and maximise the financial incentives to the company. By contrast, the mayor of San Jose, Sam Liccardo, bragged on Twitter this week that Google was “paying full freight on land, fees and taxes” for its development in his city.

https://www.ft.com/content/3bc5e214-e2f9-11e8-a6e5-792428919cee