Governor Hochul: "What I declared in my budget just a couple of months ago…was that New York State, with an enormous investment creating the Empire AI Consortium…we’ll build a supercomputer beyond the scale of what anyone could have imagined and make it available for us to be that place where we come up with new, innovative therapies to cure diseases…to deal with today's societal problems…All that's going to happen in the State of New York because we are the Empire State.”
Hochul: "We're proud of who we have, but we're very excited about where we're going and who will be in the next chapter of this Great State of New York. So I want to thank all of you for being part of this. We are thrilled that you're here. And again, I'm going to say welcome to New York.”
Earlier today, Governor Kathy Hochul delivered remarks at Google’s ribbon-cutting ceremony in New York City.
VIDEO of the event is available on YouTube here and in TV quality (h.264, mp4) format here.
AUDIO of the event is available here.
PHOTOS of the event are available on the Governor's Flickr page.
A rush transcript of the Governor's remarks is available below:
Sean Downey, President of Americas & Global Partners at Google: I'd like to take this opportunity to introduce the first of our distinguished guests that we're honored to have here with us today. Governor Hochul is the 57th and first female Governor in the Great State of New York. Many of you know her history in Congress and as Lieutenant Governor – and you know that she is an ardent Buffalo Bills fan.
She told me we would talk about that later. If we could only get rid of Patrick Mahomes, Governor, we would be okay. But we hope those of you here know that recently Governor Hochul announced her Empire AI plan. It's a visionary, $400 million commitment to make New York a global leader in the AI economy. We're excited for this leadership, and we're excited to welcome her here today. Governor?
Governor Hochul: I don’t know Sean, maybe you can offer Patrick Mahomes a really nice job here at Google. How could he not want to work here? Really? Maybe next year. It is so great to be here. Sean and Torrence and William, and all the members of the Google team that I've come to know. This is an extraordinary company. And I see this message behind us here that says, leave a mark.
Google has truly left its mark here on the City of New York in a profound way that I don't think anyone could have imagined 25 years ago, 20 years ago, even 15 years ago. And as the Governor of the State of New York that prides itself on innovation and embracing the technologies of the future.
I mean, IBM started here in the 1940s. We are known for computing and attracting the greatest and the smartest people who all gather in a place like this. And our great research institutions, our colleges, our universities, we have it all. But also, this is truly one of the most fascinating places in the world to live.
So the 3,000 of you who are the beneficiaries of this investment by Google to make this your home, I welcome you. I congratulate you. And if you're not from New York, you are now New Yorkers. You're now part of our family. So welcome to New York.
I hope I wasn't inadvertently quoting a Taylor Swift song with the welcome to New York. Sorry, Josh Allen. Sorry, Buffalo Bills. I always get in trouble. Carl Heastie has joined us here today. I work so closely with him in our state legislature, and we are blessed to have leaders in our Capitol, but also someone who really has been an inspiration to me, someone – we work closely together to make sure projects like this can go forward and support it.
So I want to thank him for his presence here today. And other electeds. I know we have our Borough President, Mark Levine here. Clyde Vanel. I want to thank you for joining us as well. I've got a whole long, lovely speech here. I've got really good – I don't even think they do any of the AI, you don't do AI right? This is all original. I don't even know anymore. It's so real.
But St. John's terminal, think about the history. Think about the fact that the great products that were created with the hands of New Yorkers for centuries came through here to deliver those products to market with this freight terminal. Now, all these years later, because of the vision of Google building on what it already did, just 20 minutes away, walking down the beautiful Hudson River Park, what they did with that pier.
Pier 57, which I was told was not named after the 57th Governor. That's all right. That's all right. That extraordinary space when I was there for the ribbon-cutting in April of 2022, telegraphed to the world that Google, a place that is synonymous with innovation and creativity, truly believes in our city.
And I do believe that those investments have spawned others who said, clearly if Google's here, this must be the place to be. So those who are fortunate to work at Pier 57, which is one of the most beautiful places. My daughter and her husband visited last weekend. They said, we discovered this really cool rooftop park, Mom, you should go see it. Hey sweetheart, I dedicated that. What do you think I do here?
So I love that space. I love the energy. I love this space as well, and I'm just so proud of what we're doing here and what you've achieved here with 14,000 employees. Of course, as New Yorkers, we never rest on our laurels. When I walked in the door and was met by Sean and Torrence and William, I said, okay, this is really nice. The pier’s really nice. So where are you going next? Tell me the next great thing where you're going to take a property that for decades, people just ignored, went past, never saw a future in it, but you did.
That's the genius of Google – seeing possibilities where others are not capable of. And we are truly benefiting from that energy and that excitement and that willingness to just go out on a limb and build, take a place like this and transform it before our very eyes so all of you who start work on Monday now, make sure you show up to work.
No more zooming into life, okay? You need to come down here. You need to go to our restaurants. You need to go take a walk along the – you need to go to Little Island. You need to go to the theater after work. You need to start getting out of your houses, right? That’s so overrated. Come to work, come to a space like this. Be part of the New York City story.
And I'll close with this. We're just getting started here in New York. Now, some people mention places. I don't know. I heard the word Mountain View once or twice. Nice place. Very nice place. I love your Governor. Love your Governor. But what we're doing here, the next revolution is AI.
And what I declared in my budget just a couple of months ago, literally a month and a half ago, was that New York State, with an enormous investment creating the Empire AI Consortium, working with the private sector, the state, our universities, we’ll build a supercomputer beyond the scale of what anyone could have imagined and make it available for us to be that place where we come up with new, innovative therapies to cure diseases that have been unreachable for up until now. To deal with today's societal problems, how we deal with poverty and injustice in our systems.
How we come up with the next great thing. All that's going to happen in the State of New York because we are the Empire State. We never rest on our laurels. We're proud of who we have, but we're very excited about where we're going and who will be in the next chapter of this Great State of New York.
So I want to thank all of you for being part of this. We are thrilled that you're here. And again, I'm going to say welcome to New York.