Elon Musk’s social media company, X, formerly known as Twitter, will shut down its San Francisco office, marking the end of its long association with the city where it was founded in 2006. The closure will see X’s 120 employees relocated to existing offices in San Jose and Palo Alto.
According to an internal email from CEO Linda Yaccarino, the decision comes as part of a broader move to consolidate operations. The company’s Market Street office, which X has occupied since 2012, was initially secured with a special tax break that attracted other tech firms to the Mid-Market neighborhood. However, the area has struggled with high office vacancy rates, currently the highest among major US cities at over 36%, partly due to the pandemic’s impact on commercial real estate.
Musk, who acquired the company in 2022, has been vocal about his dissatisfaction with San Francisco. He has criticized the city’s liberal culture and California’s state legislation, even indicating plans to relocate X’s headquarters to Texas. The company had already put 460,000 square feet of office space up for lease in San Francisco.
San Francisco Mayor London Breed’s office has acknowledged the move but remains focused on supporting businesses across the city, including the tech sector. Despite the high office-vacancy rates, recent data from the San Francisco Controller’s office shows that the tech industry saw job growth for the first time since 2022, adding 8,700 jobs between April and June. AI companies, including OpenAI, Anthropic, and Scale AI, have also contributed to a resurgence in demand for commercial space, leasing around 4 million square feet in the city this year.
X’s departure from San Francisco reflects the shifting dynamics of the tech industry and the ongoing evolution of the city’s commercial real estate market.
