Elon Musk’s X, the social network formerly known as Twitter, will be closing its San Francisco office, marking the end of the company's presence in the city where it was founded in 2006.
CEO Linda Yaccarino informed employees via email that X will vacate its Market Street location in San Francisco. According to a source familiar with the situation, employees will be moved to an existing office in San Jose and an engineering office in Palo Alto. The source, who requested anonymity because the email was not made public, provided this information.
X has not yet responded to requests for comment. The New York Times was the first to report on the closure of X’s San Francisco office.
Musk, who purchased the company in 2022, has openly criticized San Francisco and its liberal culture, attributing it to Twitter's perceived left-leaning bias. He has also taken issue with California Governor Gavin Newsom and state legislation. Last month, Musk announced plans to relocate X’s headquarters to Texas, and the company previously put 460,000 square feet of office space up for lease from its San Francisco base.
This move ends X’s nearly two-decade presence in San Francisco. The company has occupied its Market Street office since 2012, having relocated to the Mid-Market neighborhood after securing a special tax incentive along with other tech firms. The area once thrived with office workers, bustling restaurants, and new apartment complexes.
However, the neighborhood is now struggling as the city deals with the slow return of workers post-Covid-19 pandemic. Although the AI boom has somewhat revived the area, San Francisco still has the highest office-vacancy rate among major U.S. metro areas, exceeding 36%, according to CBRE data.
