Facebook has announced that it will expand the capacity of its King’s Cross, London, offices in order to facilitate up to 6,000 employees. The firm released mock-ups of the new buildings that it wants to build in order to boost the capacity at the site. The expansion could be completed as soon as 2021 but Facebook hasn’t confirmed exactly how many jobs will be created.
Facebook’s managing director for Northern Europe, Steve Hatch, said:
“Today’s news reflects our commitment to the UK and our desire to grow our business and the UK economy.”
The news of this expansion follows another announcement by the firm back in December when they said they’d create 800 more jobs bringing the total to 2,300 by the end of this year. Google, too, said in 2016 that they'll be creating 3,000 new jobs in King’s Cross by 2020. Both firm’s actions seem to be bucking the trend of firms casting doubt over a possible British exit from the European Union.
The UK branch of Facebook has been responsible for developing tools including Workplace, the firm also runs some of its Oculus work from London. One of the major draws to the UK for both Facebook and Google is artificial intelligence. Facebook has reportedly been on a hiring spree in the country this summer to find the leaders in the field of AI - including Bloomsbury AI.
Source: The Telegraph (Yahoo News)
