Alphabet plans major India expansion, widens footprint in tech hub Bengaluru

By Hritam Mukherjee

BENGALURU, Feb 4 (Reuters) – Google-parent Alphabet has leased one office tower in Bengaluru, India’s tech hub, and holds the option to occupy at least two additional buildings, according to a lease document reviewed by Reuters, signaling the company’s expansion in the country’s fast-growing tech sector.

The company has signed a lease for an office space spanning over 656,000 square feet in Alembic City, a lease document from real estate data analytics firm Propstack showed.

On February 3, Bloomberg News reported that Alphabet has leased one office tower and purchased options on two others, totaling 2.4 million square feet, citing people familiar with the deal.

If Alphabet occupies all the space, the complex could house up to 20,000 additional staff, more than doubling the company’s footprint in India, Bloomberg News reported.

A Google spokesperson told Reuters via email that it maintains a presence across India and in 2024 leased one tower of about 650,000 square feet in the Bengaluru property complex cited in recent reports.

The firm operates from three offices in Bengaluru and last February launched one of its largest offices worldwide, in the city.

The expansion comes at a time when U.S. President Donald Trump’s tougher stance on immigration, including tighter H-1B visa scrutiny and potential taxes on outsourced work, could hasten U.S. firms’ shift of critical work to India.

Alphabet is among the top sponsors of H-1B visas, according to U.S. government data.

In October, Google had said it would invest $15 billion over five years to set up an artificial intelligence data centre in India’s southern state of Andhra Pradesh, its biggest ever investment in the nation.

(Reporting by Hritam Mukherjee and Arsheeya Bajwa; Writing by Chandini Monnappa; Editing by Arun Koyyur and Mrigank Dhaniwala)