Google is planning to grow its corporate campus in Ann Arbor, the quaint college town a stone’s throw away from Detroit. Its offices, set up in 2006, will claim an additional 140,000 square feet. Around 400 Googlers are in Michigan now; the company would not comment on how many it plans to add. A Google spokeswoman said the expansion is solely devoted to boosting the existing ad sales team there. But Google clearly has some ambitions in the industry next door. In January, Chris Urmson, director of the self-driving car plans, named Google’s manufacturing partners — General Motors, Ford, Toyota, Daimler and Volkswagen — and praised Detroit’s ingenuity. Last month, Bloomberg reported Google was in talks to acquire Tesla in 2013. (Google isn’t commenting on that.) The Detroit Free Press first reported the office expansion plans.
This article originally appeared on Recode.net.
