Sundar Pichai, CEO of Google and Alphabet, last week announced that Google will invest in Italy more than $900 million in 5 years to accelerate the country’s digital transformation, including the launch of the two Cloud regions announced in partnership with TIM, as well as a new initiative for Italian SMBs.
During the pandemic, Google worked around the clock with governments from all over the world, including Italy, to help face this crisis. Among all, in Italy a partnership with the Ministry of Health provided critical information about COVID-19 on Search, Maps and YouTube, and a partnership with the Ministry of Education allowed millions of Italian students and teachers to use free distance learning tools when the schools were closed. Moreover, Google distributed advertising credits and grants to Italian small businesses, government agencies and NGOs.
Google also announced Italia in Digitale, a new plan to accelerate the country’s economic recovery by offering a series of tools, training and partnerships to support businesses and job seekers. This new project builds on the success of past initiatives like Crescere in Digitale and Google Digital Training, that in the last few years helped 500,000 people get the right digital skills to grow their careers or businesses. With its new pledge, Google is now committed to help more than 700,000 SMBs and individuals digitize, aiming to bring the total number to more than 1 million by the end of 2021.
Fabio Vaccarono, MD, Google Italy
Google has invested in Italy for several years to provide free digital skills training and accelerate the country's digital transformation. Building on this strategy, we're announcing Italia in Digitale, new tools and investments to help people and small businesses learn new skills, transform their operating models, and recover from the crisis.
