COVID Tech: Silicon Valley Exodus? Hewlett-Packard Enterprise Moving From San Jose To Houston
SAN JOSE (CBS SF) – Joining other tech companies in looking beyond Silicon Valley, Hewlett Packard Enterprise (HPE) said it would move its company headquarters from San Jose to the Houston area.
According to Texas Gov. Greg Abbott's office, the business computing company will open its new headquarters in early 2022 in the suburb of Spring.
"We are excited that Hewlett Packard Enterprise has chosen to call Texas home, and I thank them for expanding their investment in the Lone Star State by relocating their headquarters to the Houston region," Abbott said. The governor touted that HPE would join more than 50 Fortune 500 companies based in Texas, and 22 in the Houston area alone.
HPE CEO Antonio Neri called Houston "an attractive market to recruit and retain future diverse talent." Neri also said the firm was was not abandoning its Bay Area roots.
"We intend to maintain a robust presence in our historical birthplace of Silicon Valley as a hub for technological talent and innovation, including housing the headquarters of Aruba at our San Jose campus that opened in 2019," said Neri in an emailed statement. "There are no layoffs associated with this move, and we are committed to both markets as key parts of our talent and real estate strategies in a post-pandemic world."
According to the National Association of Realtors, the median home price in Houston in the third quarter of 2020 was $271,600, far below the median home price of $1.4 million in San Jose.
HPE already has several offices in Texas, including 2,600 employees at a hub in Houston. The company's other Texas offices are in Austin, where several Silicon Valley companies already have a presence, and in the Dallas suburb of Plano.
The move comes as other Silicon Valley companies have expanded operations outside of the Bay Area or are leaving the area entirely. Cupertino-based Apple is currently constructing a $1 billion campus in the Austin area. Meanwhile, Palantir, a secretive tech firm with ties to the military and intelligence agencies, announced a recent move from Palo Alto to Colorado.
Originally part of Silicon Valley pioneer Hewlett-Packard, the company's enterprise business became its own company in 2015. Meanwhile H-P, which manufactures printers and personal computers, remains headquartered in Palo Alto.