Dziewguc says the project was to be operational by early next year
WARSAW: Google plans to invest up to two billion dollars in a data hub in Poland, a leading Polish business daily reported on Wednesday, echoing a move by Microsoft announced earlier this year.
"The Google Cloud region in Warsaw is the largest investment in this type of infrastructure in Poland," Magdalena Dziewguc, Google Cloud's business development director for Poland and the region told Puls Biznesu.
Although she did not provide a specific sum for the investment, Puls Biznesu said it would be between 1.5 and 2.0 billion dollars (1.3 billion and 1.8 billion euros).
Dziewguc said the project was to be operational by early next year.
"This is part of the expansion of computing and telecommunications infrastructure in Europe, which has cost more than 15 billion euros since 2007," Puls Biznesu said.
Microsoft announced in May that it would invest one billion dollars in Poland to expand its operations, including the creation of a new regional cloud-computing data hub.
Both investments come at a crucial time for the Polish economy as the coronavirus crisis means that the EU country of 38 million is facing its first recession since the collapse of communism three decades ago.
Google and Microsoft are among the global leaders in providing cloud services — an industry worth hundreds of billions of dollars.
As well as charging for the service, cloud operators are able to harvest huge amounts of data and open up many other revenue streams.