Software giant Oracle moved the company headquarters from Redwood City, California to Austin, Texas, Bloomberg reported, the latest tech firm to depart Silicon Valley for the Lone Star State.
Oracle did not immediately reply to a request for comment Sunday, but told CNBC that it was putting into place “a more flexible employee work location policy,” and that the move to Austin would “best position Oracle for growth and provide our personnel with more flexibility about where and how they work.”
Oracle, founded in 1977, is one of the older Valley tech firms, and is a staple of the area; the San Francisco Giants play at Oracle Park, and the company’s Redwood City campus features its well-known cylindrical buildings. It already has a campus in Austin, which it opened in 2018. Texas Gov. Greg Abbott heralded the news in a tweet, saying “Texas is truly the land of business, jobs, and opportunity.”
BREAKING: Oracle just announced they have moved their Headquarters to Austin.
Texas is truly the land of business, jobs, and opportunity.
We will continue to attract the very best.
— Greg Abbott (@GregAbbott_TX) December 11, 2020
Several other firms have announced plans to leave California in recent months, with some company leaders blaming the state’s political climate as unfriendly to business. Tesla is building a new plant near Austin and CEO Elon Musk has threatened to move the company out of California altogether after tussling with local officials over coronavirus lockdowns, but Tesla still has a plant in Fremont. Musk said he moved his personal residence to Texas, as well.
And another Silicon Valley company, Hewlett Packard Enterprise, announced plans earlier this month to build a 440,000-square-foot campus in a Houston suburb for its new headquarters. HPE already has Texas locations in Austin and Plano, near Dallas.
