Oracle Is Moving Headquarters to Austin From Silicon Valley

Silicon Valley giant Oracle has announced plans to relocate its headquarters to Austin, Texas. The move is part of a corporate exodus out of California and into more business-friendly states like Texas. Oracle quietly announced the move through an SEC filing late last week, rather than a formal release.

Oracle moved into its current headquarters office in 1989, but it has been shopping for a new location for several years. It opened its Austin office campus in 2018. The campus includes an onsite apartment complex and is able to support up to 10,000 employees at one time. Last year, Oracle announced that it planned to leave Silicon Valley and was considering a new location in Las Vegas.

Several companies are making the same decision. Hewlett Packard Enterprise plans to relocate from the Silicon Valley area to Houston, Texas, and Palantir Technologies moved its headquarters from Northern California to Denver this year. Overall, California companies are looking for alternative markets. Tesla and SpaceX, which are based in Southern California, are in the process of moving to Texas as well.

Texas has become a prime landing for technology companies looking to relocate outside of California. The state not only offers a more business-friendly environment, but it also has a large pool of tech workers. Earlier this year, CBRE reported that Dallas/Fort Worth has the fifth largest technology labor pool in North America in its annual Scoring Tech Talent report. The market’s low cost of living, education hubs and reduced corporate operations costs compared to other major markets is making it attractive to many tech companies for relocation.

Remote work policies helped to accelerate Oracle’s decision to move. The filing noted, “Many of our employees can choose their office location as well as continue to work from home part time or all of the time.” A spokesperson confirmed with CNBC that Oracle will continue to employ a remote work policy permanently and as part of the relocation. This gives employees the option to choose their location, whether that means staying in Redwood City, relocating to Austin or relocating to the office of their choice.

While Oracle is relocating its headquarters office, it is not exiting California completely. The firm will continue to operate its existing offices in Redwood City, Austin, Santa Monica, Seattle, Denver, Orlando and Burlington. Many office experts have predicted both a permanent remote-work and hub-and-spoke office model, and Oracle is a prime example of both trends. Back in June, Breather CEO Bryan Murphy said that companies will still use a headquarters office as a cultural hub, but following the pandemic, the office will likely only support 30% of the workforce.