Google Investing $2.5 Billion A Year in Data Centers

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Google invested $774 million in its Internet infrastructure in the second quarter of 2012, an increase from $607 million in the previous quarter. Over the last four quarters, Google has invested nearly $2.5 billion in servers and mission-critical facilities, illustrating the strategic importance of data centers in Google's business. The company disclosed its latest spending figures in its quarterly earnings report, which was released Thursday afternoon.

Google's capital expenditures fluctuate from quarter to quarter, and the increase in the second quarter is likely tied to the construction of several international data center projects, including three new facilities in three markets in Asia (Singapore, Taiwan and Hong Kong) and a new data center in Dublin. In the United States, the company has also announced plans to double the size of its data center in Pryor, Oklahoma.

Here's a look at Google's quarter-by-quarter spending on capital expenditures.

A capital expenditure is an investment in a long-term asset, typically physical assets such as buildings or machinery. Google says the majority of its capital investments are for IT infrastructure, including data enters, servers, and networking equipment. In the past the company's CapEx spending has closely tracked its data center construction projects, each of which requires between $200 million and $600 million in investment.

"We expect to continue to make significant capital expenditures," Google said in its earnings announcement.