NEW YORK • Google's parent company Alphabet yesterday said it was investing more than US$1 billion (S$1.4 billion) to set up a campus in New York City.

In a blog post, Alphabet and Google chief financial officer Ruth Porat said it would lease large office buildings in Manhattan's West Village neighbourhood that would become the centrepiece of a campus of more than 1.7 million sq ft.

The new campus, which should be operational starting in 2020, will be known as Google Hudson Square and "will be the primary location for our New York-based Global Business Organisation", Ms Porat wrote.

"New York City continues to be a great source of diverse, world-class talent - that's what brought Google to the city in 2000 and that's what keeps us here."

Alphabet earlier this year said it was buying the Manhattan Chelsea Market for US$2.4 billion, and planned to lease space at Pier 57. The company currently employs about 7,000 people in New York.

"With these most recent investments in Google Chelsea and Google Hudson Square, we will have the capacity to more than double the number of Googlers in New York over the next 10 years," Ms Porat said.

The expansion would make California-based Alphabet one of the city's largest commercial tenants, The Wall Street Journal reported.

AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE