Google CEO Sundar Pichai Announces $175M Fund For African American Business Owners

Google and Alphabet Inc. GOOGL GOOG CEO Sundar Pichai sent a note to employees Wednesday, affirming the company’s commitment to racial equality and announcing measures to support African American employees.

What Happened

Addressing the violent and racist attacks against African Americans over the past several weeks, Pichai announced measures aimed at strengthening Google’s commitment to racial equality and inclusion, including improving “Black+” representation at senior levels to 30% by 2025.

The Alphabet CEO pledged an economic opportunity package over $175 million to support African American business owners, startup founders, job seekers, and developers.

Pichai said that Google wants to create products and programs to help African American users “in the moments that matter most.” A task force has been assembled to implement product ideas.

Why It Matters

Pichai explained that Google’s economic opportunity package is in addition to YouTube’s $100 million fund aimed at giving a boost to African American creators and artists.

Google is earmarking $3 million to provide opportunities in computer science education and increase "Black+" representation in science, technology, engineering, and math fields.

The company’s management is just 2.6% “Black+” and 3.7% “Latinx+,” while nearly 66% of Google’s leadership is defined as “White+” by the company in its diversity report.

The search engine giant will post senior leadership roles externally and internally across regions to recruit underrepresented communities.

Google also announced an end to badge checking by employees after listening to the experiences of its minority employees.

The practice involved employees checking each other’s badges to deter unauthorized access to office buildings.

Price Action

On Wednesday, Alphabet Class A shares traded 0.54% lower at $1,444.66 in the after-hours session, the shares closed 0.42% higher at $1,452.54 in the regular session. The company’s Class C shares traded 0.49% lower in the after-hours session at $1,443.95 and closed 0.58% higher at $1,451.12.