To be clear, Apple and Google both have huge UK presence. I don't know the extent of Google, but Apple has offices with thousands of people working in them. Compliance with what the UK wants in this regard is not optional.
What the original poster does is completely misplace blame under the guise of "clever" writing - blame should be assigned squarely on the idiotic policies of the UK government.
I'd say more likely, their UK presence. There's an increasing gap between UK and the rest of Europe, wider than other non-EU members such as Switzerland.
I see Switzerland as a country that wants complete independence, but sees value in cooperating with other countries, and does so. UK seems like on the path to becoming an authoritarian hellscape and won't allow any other country to stop its degradation.
I did mean EU presence. From what I’ve heard, the plan of the construction project seems to have been to relocate people from Munich, Warsaw, etc. to London. Not only is there isn’t much of an equivalence post Brexit, as you note, but it’s also not less expensive in any obvious way. So yes, it’s weird.
Google has been building a huge new office in London for a bit now, with the apparent intent to move most of their EU presence there.