Google started at the Zurich site with two employees 15 years ago; now the company has a staff complement of 4,000 in the city. In addition to the site of the former brewery Hürlimann, it has offices on the Europaallee next to the main station. Here, Google inaugurated its fourth building on Tuesday, where up to 1,000 jobs are to be added in the medium term. “We want to continue growing,” said building manager Lucas Stolwijk in an article by the Tages-Anzeiger newspaper.
Urs Hölzle, Senior Vice President for Technical Infrastructure at Google, has nothing but praise for Switzerland as a location. The Swiss Federal Institute of Technology in Zurich (ETH) and international outlook of the city allow Google to swiftly source the necessary expertise, he told the Tages-Anzeiger. Google staff in Zurich have been involved in major developments such as Google Maps, the application of artificial intelligence for Google Translate and improvements to voice assistants on smartphones and tablets.
On Tuesday, Google Switzerland celebrated its 15th birthday in Zurich. According to a tweet from the company, the celebrations were also attended by Ueli Maurer, President of the Swiss Confederation.
