Oracle's move to Austin may spur further California influx

[Neil Narayan]

On December 11, Oracle, the world's largest data base company, announced it was moving its headquarters from Silicon Valley to Austin. The announcement, coupled with major expansions underway by Apple, Facebook, Tesla, and others, is a feather in the cap of local business boosters. 

Whether you’re a champion or a critic of the Oracle relocation, the ongoing influx of companies and executives from California shows no signs of letting up. In fact, some observers speculate that Facebook could follow Oracle in shifting its headquarters from the high-cost San Francisco Bay Area to lower-cost Austin. On December 4, the Austin Business Journal reported that Facebook is hunting for 1 million square feet of offices in addition to the space it already leases here.

https://austin.culturemap.com/...

[Justin Thorpe]

The irony in this post (as with many others like this) is it assumes a Zero sum game. Like SF/Silicon Valley has to fail for Austin to grow.

I am bullish on Austin but I am, as I have been for a long time, but I am more bullish on SF. I think they will both grow.

My hope is more local startups grow in Austin vs people dancing in the streets because a old line tech company decided to move its “HQ” to Austin. It should not be a zero sum game.

If the rest of America wants to prosper and the only way for that to happen is for SF to fail, we as a country are playing the wrong game.

And that’s what actually differentiates Silicon Valley, this place is not looking for the Midwest or the Southeast to fail for it to prosper, this place creates prosperity through innovation.

I will say this that Oracle was the “Google or Facebook” in the mid 90s. Today the best engineer will steer clear of that company and head for other techs. I think Oracle will find it easier to attract talent in Austin. It was not easy for Oracle to attract talent anymore.