Alphabet announced a $9 billion investment in Virginia infrastructure by 2026 to expand artificial intelligence and cloud capabilities, according to CEO Sundar Pichai. Google also committed $1 billion to AI skills training, offering free access to its AI Pro plan for all Virginia college students and launching the “Virginia Has Jobs” AI Career Launch Pad for residents. Partnerships with universities and community colleges aim to prepare students for AI-driven industries. The investment follows reports of Meta’s $10 billion, six-year deal to run AI workloads on Google Cloud. Oracle separately announced the integration of Google’s Gemini AI models into Oracle Cloud Infrastructure. The moves underscore Google’s effort to compete with Amazon Web Services and Microsoft Azure. Alphabet recently reported second-quarter revenue of $96.43 billion, with Google Cloud revenue rising to $13.62 billion from $10.35 billion a year earlier. Alphabet Class A shares edged up 0.16% and Class C shares gained 1.13% on Wednesday.
