Long-term thinking powers Google’s search for new avenues

In its self-proclaimed drive to make the world a better place, Google has immersed itself in far more than Internet search and online ads. But how does one explain its investments in driverless cars and a wind energy farm in the Atlantic?

In its self-proclaimed drive to make the world a better place, Google has immersed itself in far more than Internet search and online ads. But how does one explain its investments in driverless cars and a wind energy farm in the Atlantic?

HT Image

Google’s brain trust — founders Larry Page and Sergey Brin, along with CEO Eric Schmidt — clearly think differently

than most corporate leaders, and may eventually encourage more companies to take risks that might not pay off for years, if ever. With a little imagination, it’s easy to see how Google might benefit. For instance, the driverless technology eventually could be implanted into a fleet of vehicles used for car sharing.

Google said on Tuesday it would buy a 37.5 per cent stake in the Atlantic Ocean wind energy project, investing in a network of deepwater transmission lines to bring power from proposed offshore wind farms.

That makes more sense when you realise Google already sucks up massive amounts of energy from the power grid and expects to consume even more in the next decade as it opens more data centers filled with row upon row of computers to run its Internet services. And if the value of renewable energy rises, as many analysts expect, Google eventually could even sell its stake for a tidy profit.

Google can afford to gamble more frequently than most companies because it dominates the Internet’s most lucrative market, the ads running alongside search results. It has cash reserves of $30 billion. In comparison, foreign direct investment into India in 2009 stood at $25.5 billion.