Google feels the love and opens Luxembourg office

Google and the University of Luxembourg announced on Thursday the opening of a new joint centre of excellence at the university’s Kirchberg campus, as well as the opening of a new corporate office in Luxembourg, to be based on Boulevard Royal in the centre of the capital.

Hailed as a major development in Google’s relationship with the Grand Duchy, the move is not directly connected to the planned Google data centre in Bissen – though it is considered part of the preparation process.

Google Vice President for the EMEA South region Anthony Cirot said those plans continue. “If you feel love locally, you open an office,” he said at the the launch event on Thursday afternoon. The new office will feature “real Google employees who will cover the market for Luxembourg,” he said, adding that it will be “medium sized”.

Google declined to confirm the exact size of its financial investment in the new Luxembourg office, or how many people will work there.

The joint centre of excellence with the University of Luxembourg will focus on research, said Yves le Traon, director of the university’s SnT (Interdisciplinary Centre for Security, Reliability and Trust), with a strong emphasis on outreach and seminars to help spread knowledge as part of Google’s open source, collaborative model.

The public-private partnership with the University of Luxembourg will benefit both parties, the rector of the university, Jens Kreisel, told guests at the launch. The centre’s focus on AI will benefit from Google’s world-leading position in the field, while the tech giant will benefit from the interdisciplinary research fields the university can offer. “AI is a driver of interdisciplinarity,” Kreisel said.

Also speaking at the event, Deputy Prime Minister Xavier Bettel said the Luxembourg business environment has changed in the last decade. “If Google were to open here when I became prime minister in 2013, it would have done so quietly. Today, nobody has to be ashamed to operate in Luxembourg.”

His comments likely refer to the fact that Google comes to Luxembourg to take advantage of the country’s technological infrastructure and its advanced AI strategy, and not because of its tax regime.

Google’s Cirot echoed the sentiment, noting that disconnected sovereign cloud computing – whereby national secure data can be stored and processed in complete security – was pioneered in Luxembourg and that Google is now working on similar models with other countries.