ATHENS – Adding to its presence in Greece 15 years after jumping in, Google is planning more investments, including creating data centers, cloud services and applications based on Artificial Intelligence.

Google’s further investment will go through 2030 and create thousands of jobs in a sector valued by the New Democracy government that’s focusing on Information Technology foreign companies it’s trying to attract.

Google’s General Manager for Southeast Europe, Peggy Antonakou stressed that at an event for the company’s 15th anniversary with Vice-President of Engineering and Research Yossi Matias, said business newspaper Naftemporiki.

Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis was also there and had a discussion with Matias about Google’s objectives, the role of AI and Greece’s further potential to becoming a technology producer, the report said.

Mitsotakis focused on the benefits of AI in various areas such as the prediction and management of critical situations due to climate change, the improvement of health services and defending against misinformation, it was added.

In September, 2022, Google began to set up its first cloud region in Greece giving a boost to the country’s efforts to become a world cloud computing hub, in a 2.2 billion euro ($2.39 billion) deal, said Reuters then.

https://www.reuters.com/technology/google-build-its-first-cloud-region-greece-2022-09-29/

“We are very pleased to be announcing our first cloud region in Greece which will provide storage and cloud services for Google customers,” said Adaire Fox-Martin, President of Google Cloud International at an Athens event.

A cloud region usually is based around a cluster of data centers, Google’s investment coming two years after Microsoft decided to build a data center hub in the country that’s seeing more interest from IT and high-tech giants.