Workers for Google in the UK collected salary and share packages worth an average of more than £266,000 last year, up 9% on 2022, latest accounts reveal.
Financial results for Google UK for 2023 show that the company’s 7,422 employees shared wages and salaries of £1.06 billion, or £142,372 each on average. But on top of that they received share based payments of £920.04 million, averaging £123,398.
The combined total of £266,333 in cash and share based payments compares with £243,746 in the previous year when it employed 7,005 people in the UK.
Much of Google’s AI research and development takes place in the UK, including on its Gemini AI services, stemming in part from its acquisition of London AI business DeepMind in 2014.
The accounts also show that the UK arm of the tech giant achieved turnover of £2.81 billion in 2023, a rise of 8% from the £2.61 of 2022.
Pre-tax profits for the year soared by almost 50% from £342.1 million to £502.4 million, the biggest profit it has ever made in a 12 month period. The company made a £1.1 billion profit in the 2021 financial year but that was over an 18 month period after it changed the year end to December.
The accounts also show that Google UK paid £128.6 million in corporation tax on its profits, up from £59.1 million the previous year. There was no dividend to its parent company Alphabet Inc.
Shortly after the year end Google announced a $1 billion investment in a new data centre in Waltham Cross in Hertfordshire, described by then Prime Minister as “a huge vote of confidence in the UK as the largest tech economy in the UK.”
Google staff in London will shortly be moving in to its huge Kings Cross campus.
The accounts also reveal that google UK donated £4,844 “in-kind to the Labour party in respect of room hire and refreshments.”
The results come amid reports the US government is exploring a break-up of Google after accusing it of being responsible for “pernicious harms” in what could prove to be biggest regulatory upset in the history of Silicon Valley.
Google has rejected the Department of Justice plans, describing them as “radical” and “sweeping” and claiming they “risk hurting consumers, businesses, and developers,” according to the tech website UKTN.
