Google Looking At 1 Million Square Foot Campus
Google is looking to expand by building a one million square foot complex at NASA Ames.
The San Fransisco Chronicle reports:
Google Inc. is expected to announce plans today to build a 1 million-square-foot campus at NASA Ames Research Center in Mountain View, sources familiar with the plan said Tuesday.
With the Google campus, The NASA Ames Research Center could become the epicenter of Silicon Valley tech innovation. The article speculates that it could become like the old Xerox Park. The area has been a center for space research since the 30s.
Because of local development laws, Google would have to build housing, roads and other infrastructure. Google would keep its Mountain View Googleplex. Google CEO Eric Schmidt and NASA Ames director Scott Hubbard have already scheduled a press conference for later today.
(via Google Blogoscoped)
UPDATE: From the release:
NASA and Google have signed a memorandum of understanding (MOU) that outlines plans for cooperation on a variety of areas, including large-scale data management, massively distributed computing, bio-info-nano convergence, and encouragement of the entrepreneurial space industry. The MOU also highlights plans for Google to develop up to one million square feet within the NASA Research Park at Moffett Field.
“Our planned partnership presents an enormous range of potential benefits to the space program,” said NASA Ames Center Director G. Scott Hubbard. “Just a few examples are new sensors and materials from collaborations on bio-info-nano convergence, improved analysis of engineering problems as well as Earth, life and space science discoveries from supercomputing and data mining, and bringing entrepreneurs into the space program. While our joint efforts will benefit both organizations, the real winner will be the American
public,” he added.
The geeks are getting the keys to the kingdom.
Who could think that a deal with NASA is just about office space? From NASA’s press release, this sounds like an R&D partnership, with the office space as an afterthought:
“… large-scale data management, massively distributed computing, bio-info-nano convergence … supercomputing and data mining …”
Comment by mahlon | September 28, 2005