Nvidia Buys Its Santa Clara HQ for $374M

Nvidia, the AI chipmaker with a market cap that has nearly doubled this year to $2.37T, has purchased its Santa Clara headquarters complex for $374M.

The deal for six parcels of land includes eight buildings, two parking structures and the possession of 2M SF of future development rights for the rapidly growing tech giant, according to a report in the San Francisco Standard.

The HQ complex, located at 2788 San Tomas Expressway, includes data centers and lab facilities as well as offices that are connected by a network of overhead bridges and several large parks.

Between 2018 and 2022, Nvidia also built and occupies two office buildings encompassing 1.2M SF across the street from the headquarters. The buildings—named Voyager and Endeavor, an homage to a Star Trek vessel and a NASA space shuttle—are owned by Nvidia and were not part of the HQ transaction.

Nvidia bought the HQ complex from its now-former landlord, Los Angeles-based Preylock Holdings, which acquired the property from San Francisco-based DivcoWest in 2017 for $240M. Newmark represented the seller, the report said.

Earlier this year, an unexpected nine-figure offer from a foreign investor touched off a bidding war for the Nvidia HQ. Preylock Holdings tapped Newmark to represent the property in a potential sale that was expected to be valued at close to $400M. The seller received multiple inquiries from other interested parties, the Standard reported.

The combination of assets at the complex, where Nvidia has been the sole tenant with a long-term lease, included access to a not-for-profit electric utility, Silicon Valley Power, owned and operated by the City of Santa Clara, which can set its own electricity prices.

Data processing using AI chips requires at least five times the power consumption of standard services.

Nvidia doesn’t manufacture any its chips at its HQ complex, and—despite the massive office footprint it built across the street—it has been widely reported that the company has a flexible work policy that still does not require its employees to work in-person.

In January, Preylock secured a $181M refinancing of Nvidia’s HQ complex. JPMorgan Chase provided a $130M senior mortgage and a $50.5M mezzanine loan backed by the office and lab campus. Preylock used the new debt, plus about $9M in equity, to pay off a $167M loan from Natixis and to fund tenant improvements.