Google to open new headquarters in London with £1bn investment plan

The outcome of the UK referendum known as Brexit which saw the country opting for leaving the European Union earlier this summer surely created a bit of turbulence in the economic space, leaving more than a few companies in a state of uncertainty.

In spite of this, however, the country’s capital city still seems to be going strong, and Google appears to be ready to actually double down on its efforts there…

Following Apple‘s massive investment in London’s soon-to-be-revived iconic Battersea Power Station, its longtime rival and US-neighbor is looking to follow suit, as per a BBC interview with Sundar Pichai.

Google’s CEO, who is visiting the country and has today met with the city’s mayor Sadiq Khan, showed the Mountain View firm’s plan that sees London as a crucial location for its future development: up to 3000 new jobs will be created within the next four years, in an overall investment that is said to go past £1 billion.

To accommodate almost twice as many employees — which consists of around 4000 as of today — the company’s King’s Cross-located offices will be expanded accordingly, reaching a humongous 650,000 square feet area, designed by famous, Page-and-Brin-picked architect Thomas Heatherwick in collaboration with the danish Bjarke Ingels Group.

“The UK has been a tremendous market for us,” Pichai told the BBC. “We see big opportunities here. This is a big commitment from us – we have some of the best talent in the world in the UK and to be able to build great products from here sets us up well for the long term.”

Despite the post-Brexit fear, in fact, Google’s executive officer reassured that the UK economy’s strength went “far beyond” the democratic vote’s result; it may have complicated “secondary effects”, he stated, but nothing that made the company stop its intention to carry along with the expansion plan.

“The innovation we see here, the talent we have available here and how on the cutting edge of technology we are able to be here makes it an incredible place for us to invest,” he said. “We do value how open and connected it is and we can bring in talent from anywhere in the world and we value those attributes and we are optimistic that those will stay true over time.”