In 2017, three women sued Google, accusing the company of violating California’s Equal Pay Act by underpaying its female employees. In June 2022, Google agreed to pay a $118 million settlement to 15,550 female employees working in California since 2013. The investigation claimed Google used its market power to prevent rivals from competing fairly, affecting billions spent on digital ads. It was ruled in 2025 by the Justice Department alongside 17 other states that Google operates a monopoly in online advertising technology. In March 2024, a former Google software engineer and Chinese national named Linwei Ding was accused of stealing confidential artificial intelligence information from the company and handing it to Chinese corporations. Upon discovering Ding had been in contact with Chinese state-owned companies, Google notified the FBI, who carried on the investigation of the data breach.
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- In September 2019, Google’s chief executive announced plans for a $2 billion wind and solar investment, the biggest renewable energy deal in corporate history.
- In January 2025, U.S. federal judge Richard Seeborg rejected Google’s motion to dismiss a class-action lawsuit.
- Rajeev Motwani and Terry Winograd later co-authored with Page and Brin the first paper about the project, describing PageRank and the initial prototype of the Google search engine, published in 1998.
- In November 2024, Google announced the establishment of a new AI hub in Saudi Arabia, aiming to support the Kingdom’s economic growth and technological development as part of its Vision 2030 initiative.
- A job search product has also existed since before 2017, Google for Jobs is an enhanced search feature that aggregates listings from job boards and career sites.
- The project was canceled in December following the backlash it garnered both externally and internally within the company.
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U.S. government contracts
This AI hub is projected to contribute up to $71 billion to Saudi Arabia’s economy by advancing AI-driven solutions tailored to the region’s specific needs and training local talent. On August 10, 2015, Google announced plans to reorganize its various interests as a conglomerate named Alphabet Inc. Google CEO Sundar Pichai accused Damore of violating company policy by “advancing harmful gender stereotypes in our workplace”, and he was fired on the same day. Page and Brin would also use their friend Susan Wojcicki’s garage as their office when the search engine was set up in 1998. Google began in January 1996 as a research project by Larry Page and Sergey Brin while they were both PhD students at Stanford University in California, United States.
Corporate identity
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- Terry Semel, Yahoo’s then-CEO, offered $3 billion to purchase the company, but Page and Brin reportedly held firm on a $5 billion valuation.
- The company announced the two locations will generate 169.5 megawatts of power, enough to supply 55,000 homes.
- It was ruled in 2025 by the Justice Department alongside 17 other states that Google operates a monopoly in online advertising technology.
- This includes sales of apps, purchases made in-app, digital content products on Google and YouTube, Android and licensing and service fees, including fees received for Google Cloud offerings.
- For the 2006 fiscal year, the company reported $10.492 billion in total advertising revenues and only $112 million in licensing and other revenues.
- In May 2022, Google announced that the company had acquired California based, MicroLED display technology development and manufacturing Start-up company Raxium.
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This will grow their green energy profile by 40%, giving them an extra 1.6 gigawatt of clean energy, the company said. It also has product research and development operations in cities around the world, namely Sydney (birthplace location of Google Maps) and London (part of Android development). In November 2013, Google announced plans for a new London headquarter, a 1 million square foot office able to accommodate 4,500 employees. In 2013, a class action against several Silicon Valley companies, including Google, was filed for alleged “no cold call” agreements which restrained the recruitment of high-tech employees. In a lawsuit filed January 8, 2018, multiple employees and job applicants alleged Google discriminated against a class defined by their “conservative political views[,] male gender[,] and/or … Caucasian or Asian race”.
Initial public offering
On October 8, 2024, The U.S. government suggested it could request Google to divest parts of its business, such as the Chrome browser and Android, due to its alleged monopoly in online search. Google, which intended to appeal, argued that the proposals were too extreme, while also dealing with other antitrust cases involving its app store and advertising operations. The DoJ also sought a ban on Google re-entering the browser market for five years and restrictions on its investments in rival search or AI technologies. On January 21, 2019, French data regulator CNIL imposed a record €50 million fine on Google for breaching the European Union’s General Data Protection Regulation.
European Union
On March 20, 2019, the European Commission imposed a €1.49 billion ($1.69 billion) fine on Google for preventing rivals from being able to “compete and innovate fairly” in the online advertising market. On June 27, 2017, the company received a record fine of €2.42 billion from the European Union (EU) for “promoting its own shopping comparison service at the top of search results”. Total carbon emissions for 2010 were just under 1.5 million metric tons, mostly due to fossil fuels that provide electricity for the data centers.
Contents
These centers, which will be built in Columbus and Lancaster, will power up the company’s tools, including AI technology. The said data hub will add to the already operational center near Columbus, bringing Google’s total investment in Ohio to over $2 billion. In August 2024, Google would lose a lawsuit which started in 2020 in lower court, as it was found that the company had an illegal monopoly over Internet search. The EU Court of Justice found that Google’s treatment of rival shopping searches, which the court referred to as “discriminatory”, was in violation of the Digital Markets Act.
- In February 2010, Google announced the Google Fiber project, with experimental plans to build an ultra-high-speed broadband network for 50,000 to 500,000 customers in one or more American cities.
- It has been referred to as “the most powerful company in the world” by the BBC, and is one of the world’s most valuable brands.
- This will grow their green energy profile by 40%, giving them an extra 1.6 gigawatt of clean energy, the company said.
- Google donates to climate change denial political groups including the State Policy Network and the Competitive Enterprise Institute.
- In February 2010, the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission granted Google an authorization to buy and sell energy at market rates.
- Google, which intended to appeal, argued that the proposals were too extreme, while also dealing with other antitrust cases involving its app store and advertising operations.
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Google was grilled Methbet casino at a Senate Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation hearing on the project one month later. The project was canceled in December following the backlash it garnered both externally and internally within the company. In 2008, Google announced its “project 10100”, which accepted ideas for how to help the community and then allowed Google users to vote on their favorites. Responding to the humanitarian crisis after the 2022 Russian invasion of Ukraine, Google announced a $15 million donation to support Ukrainian citizens. Also in February 2022, Google announced a $100 million fund to expand skills training and job placement for low-income Americans, in conjunction with non-profits Year Up, Social Finance, and Merit America. In September 2020, Google announced it had retroactively offset all of its carbon emissions since the company’s foundation in 1998.
