Google plans to invest$9.5 billion in US offices and data centers this year, the company said Wednesday. That's an increase from$7 billion spent on real estate in 2021.

The planned spending comes as the company begins to roll out its hybrid work strategy, which will allow many employees to work remotely part of the week.

"It might seem counterintuitive to step up our investment in physical offices even as we embrace more flexibility in how we work," said Sundar Pichai, Google and Alphabet CEO, in a blog post. "Yet we believe it's more important than ever to invest in our campuses and that doing so will make for better products, a greater quality of life for our employees, and stronger communities."

Google highlighted investments in offices across the country, including the opening of new premises in Atlanta and ongoing construction of an office in Austin, with work also under way on existing offices in New York, as well as campuses in Boulder, CO., Cambridge, MA., Pittsburgh, and Seattle. The company also expects to create 12,000 additional jobs this year.

Google did not detail how much will be spent on offices specifically.

The increased investment in data centers is necessary as Google competes with other large cloud computing providers such as Microsoft and Amazon Web Services, said Jack Gold, president and principal analyst at J.Gold Associates, while investment in office space will help in several ways.

"First, they are trying to diversify their locations to be able to utilize people and resources in other places than just Silicon Valley," said Gold. "And even though many Google employees will continue to work remotely at least part time, they still will need to get into offices on a regular basis to collaborate with other Googlers."

He added that Google's growing workforce will also require added office capacity. "Google continues to hire, so they have an expanding base of employees to house," he said.

"Google's plans to step up their investment in their physical offices are likely in support of - rather than counter to - embracing flexible work arrangements," said Ra