Google is expected to trim its Washington, D.C. office footprint as the company pours cash into a massive artificial intelligence buildout following a blockbuster quarter. Company leaders have signaled that the biggest near-term needs are servers, data center capacity and other technical infrastructure, not more leased desks. That shift could leave landlords and brokers around the Capitol quietly game-planning which floors, and which leases, might quietly slip back onto the market.
According to CoStar, Alphabet plans to consolidate its Washington presence, including offices that have long housed its lobbying and government operations at 25 Massachusetts Ave. NW. The subscriber-only CoStar report frames the move as part of a broader pullback in leased office space even as the company posts strong revenue and steps up spending on AI.
Alphabet's April 29 filing with the SEC shows consolidated revenue of $109.9 billion for the quarter and Google Cloud revenue of about $20 billion, a 63% year-over-year increase. The accompanying SEC press release also notes a near-doubling of the company’s cloud backlog and record uptake of its Gemini AI products.
Executives say that growth is coming at the price of heavier infrastructure investment. Fortune reports that Alphabet raised its full-year 2026 capital-expenditure guidance to $180 to $190 billion, and CFO Anat Ashkenazi told analysts the company expects 2027 capex to "significantly increase" from 2026 levels.
What The Office Shuffle Means In The Shadow Of The Capitol
25 Massachusetts Ave sits a few blocks from the Capitol and has been a hub for Google's Washington-facing teams, according to CoStar. At the same time, Bisnow has reported that while overall vacancy across the District remains elevated, trophy-class space is tighter, a split that would shape how and where any Google consolidation shows up in leasing data. For D.C. landlords the key question is whether Google folds teams into existing District properties or hands back leased floors to the open market.
Why The Desks Shrink While The Servers Swell
Alphabet's filings show purchases of property and equipment of roughly $35.7 billion in the quarter, a reminder of how much cash the company is sinking into physical infrastructure. SEC disclosures and investor coverage tie that spending to data-center capacity, custom hardware and other AI compute needs, investments that can offer higher long-term returns than marginal office expansion. That helps explain how Google can post booming cloud sales while simultaneously paring back some leased workspace.
Landlords, brokers and local policymakers will be watching lease filings and company statements in the coming weeks for details on timing and square footage. Until Google or its landlords confirm specifics, the picture stays incomplete. We will be monitoring public filings and local leasing activity for updates.
