32% Of FAANG Professionals Think “Texas Is The Next Silicon Valley”

32% Of FAANG Professionals Think “Texas Is The Next Silicon Valley”

Oracle’s Friday announcement that it’s shifting its headquarters to Austin follows a previous move by Hewlett Packard Enterprise to Houston.

Two days ago a Google employee asked Blind, Are companies leaving Silicon Valley? Oracle announced they are moving their HQ to Texas. HPE and Tesla are also going to Texas. Will the other companies follow? Would you move out of California to Texas?” 

Key Learnings:

  • 31% of professionals across all companies and industries say “Texas is the next Silicon Valley, I am moving” 
    • 32% of FAANG professionals say “Texas is the next Silicon Valley, I am moving” 
    • 34% of finance  professionals say “Texas is the next Silicon Valley, I am moving” 
    • 29% of tech  professionals say “Texas is the next Silicon Valley, I am moving” 
  • 35%  of professionals across all companies and industries say “Silicon Valley will always be the tech hub, I’m staying” 
    • 39% of FAANG professionals say “Silicon Valley will always be the tech hub, I’m staying” 
    • 28% of finance professionals say “Silicon Valley will always be the tech hub, I’m staying” 
    • 36% of tech professionals say “Silicon Valley will always be the tech hub, I’m staying” 
  • 34% of professionals across all companies and industries say  “Doesn’t matter, remote work all the way!” 

You can see the raw data breakdown here. 

A Facebook employee responded to the poll saying “They are moving their Headquarters, not their operations. Tesla and Oracle are still in the bay. Remote work is very unlikely to be the norm, neither workers nor businesses want it and when once reopened workers will want it even less. Stoked for the folks that do want it and are ok with the tradeoffs but the majority will flock back. Human nature won’t change due to a pandemic imho.”

This user has a point- these companies aren’t shutting down their California offices. They’ve changed their legal addresses in part to flee the state’s taxes and regulations.

Elon Musk, who has sparred with California over labor issues amid pandemic restrictions, recently announced he would move from L.A. to Texas, which is likely to save him a fortune in personal taxes.

A Uber employee shared “I left the Bay Area for TX. Haven’t looked back. Standard of living went way up.”

Neither Google nor Facebook has shown the slightest public interest in moving their home bases, and Apple’s $5 billion UFO-style headquarters can’t exactly take flight.

_____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

Reference:

Are companies leaving Silicon Valley?