Google: $698 Million in CapEx in 2Q08

Google (GOOG) spent $698 million on its infrastructure in the second quarter of 2008, a slight drop from a record first quarter but still among the largest quarterly capital expenditures yet, the company said yesterday. While falling short of matching the $842 million in the first quarter, the latest capex figure virtually matches the previous high of $699 million in the second quarter of 2006. The record capex investment reflects the acceleration of Google's data center construction program in 2007. Here's a look at the trend:

The capital expenditures are dedictaed to ongoing construction on the four major data center projects Google announced in the U.S. in 2007, including facilities in North Carolina, South Carolina, Oklahoma and Iowa. Google says its capital expenditures are "related to IT infrastructure investments, including data centers, servers, and networking equipment."