Founding Father HPE Leaves Silicon Valley, Moves HQ To Texas

One of the founding companies of California’s tech homeland of Silicon Valley, is leaving the ‘golden state’ and moving its headquarters to Texas.

Hewlett-Packard Enterprise (HPE) said the move to relocate its headquarters from San Jose, California to Houston, Texas, was because “Houston is an attractive market to recruit and retain future diverse talent.”

The firm confirmed that it will consolidate a number of sites in the Bay Area to its San Jose campus, but no layoffs are expected.

Leaving California

HPE announced the move in a regulatory filing, as firms explore lower-cost alternative locations to California.

“HPE has made the decision to relocate its headquarters from San Jose, California, to Houston, Texas,” said the firm. “HPE’s largest US employment hub, Houston is an attractive market to recruit and retain future diverse talent, and is where the company is currently constructing a state-of-the-art new campus.”

“The Bay Area will continue to be a strategic hub for HPE innovation, and the company will consolidate a number of sites in the Bay Area to its San Jose campus,” it said. “No layoffs are associated with this move.”

But according to Bloomberg, the move to Texas comes amid a broader re-evaluation, motivated by pandemic-enforced remote working arrangements, and by individuals and companies opting to leave behind an area well known for its very high cost of living and commuting difficulties.

A number of other firms have already left the San Francisco Bay Area, including data-mining provider Palantir Technologies, which moved to Denver from Palo Alto.

E-cigarette maker Juul Labs also relocated to Washington from San Francisco, and Charles Schwab said last year its headquarters will move from San Francisco to Westlake, Texas.

Elon Musk also famously threatened in May this year to move the Tesla factory out of California altogether, to Texas or Nevada, after clashing with officials in Alameda County.

Founding father

But HPE is one of the founding fathers of Silicon Valley.

HPE was created in the 2015 split of tech veteran Hewlett-Packard Co, which was founded in 1939 in a Palo Alto garage.

There is little doubt that the decision by HPE to shift its headquarters from San Jose is a blow to the Bay Area and California as a whole, and will serve as a warning for local officials struggling to keep jobs in the local area, amid hugely expensive housing and poor commuting.

It is reported that HPE’s Texas facility will contain all the administrative work, whereas the technology innovation hub will remain in San Jose.