Google CEO Sundar Pichai confirms new London headquarters

Google will build a new headquarters in the King's Cross area of London. Sundar Pichai, chief executive at the search engine giant, confirmed the new build in a speech on Tuesday (15 November) at Google's current London office.

"Here in the UK, it's clear to me that computer science has a great future with the talent, educational institutions, and passion for innovation we see all around us. We are committed to the UK and excited to continue our investment in our new King's Cross campus," Pichai said.

The new building, which is estimated to cost £1bn ($1.25bn) will be designed by Thomas Heatherwick, an English designer whose previous works include the new London bus, the Olympic cauldron and the garden bridge. The new building is said to be 10-storey tall and expected to provide a floorspace of 650,000sq ft.

The new headquarters is said to become the first headquarters that will be designed and owned by Google outside the US. While Google currently employs 4,000 people in the UK, this move, it is said, could create 3,000 new jobs in the UK capital by 2020.

The move is also said to be seen as a vote of confidence in the UK's prospects after Brexit, according to the Guardian.

Pichai said the UK's decision to leave the European Union could have complicated "secondary effects" in the long run. He, however, added that it was too early to say what these effects could be.

The CEO also said that the strength of the UK economy weighed much more than the Brexit vote. In an interview with the BBC, he said, "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.

"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 ... So we did [make the investment decision] taking into consideration [the referendum], but we are very optimistic."

However, sources at Google said this investment decision would depend on Brexit negotiations between the UK and the EU, saying the investment would be at risk if the UK decides to curb or ban the immigration of skilled labour.