Speculation is growing that another company owned by Elon Musk may be coming to Austin.
X, his social media company formerly called Twitter, is looking to sublease its 800,000-square-foot headquarters in San Francisco, leaving a large hole in its office footprint. Meanwhile, in recent months, the company has “put inquiries out in the Austin area for large blocks of office space, somewhere in the neighborhood of 500,000 square feet,” according to Steve Triolet, senior vice president for research and market forecasting with Partners Real Estate.
A deal is not imminent, Triolet cautioned, but earlier this year, the company announced it would form a 100-person content moderation team based in Austin. Shortly after buying the company in 2022, Musk reportedly told staff he had “no plans” to move the company to Texas, but that he remained open to the idea of a “dual-headquartered” X in California and Texas.
“This aligns with Musk’s previous statements about consolidating operations and creating a tech hub in Austin,” Triolet said. “A probable move and/or expansion in Austin makes all the sense in the world.”
X did not respond to a request for comment.
As he spends more time in Texas, Musk has moved or increased the presence of several of his companies in the state. Earlier this week, his computer implant company Neuralink filed to build an office in Del Valle. The facility will be located near a site used by the Boring Company and Musk’s rumored “Project Amazing,” a 100-home housing development with Lennar. Tesla alone reportedly employs nearly 20,000 people in the Austin area, including at its Gigafactory in Pflugerville.
A lease by X would be a shot in the arm to Austin’s ailing office market.
The city reached a record 25 percent vacancy rate last quarter, according to JLL. Tech has long been the dominant player in Austin’s office market. Last year, IBM signed the largest lease in the city, taking 320,000 square feet at Hines Domain Northside.
But a downturn in the industry has led several firms to reconsider their space. In 2022, Meta took 589,000 square feet at Sixth and Guad, though later that year it put the space up for sublease. Google, which has planned to occupy the roughly 800,000-square-foot 601 West 2nd Street since 2019, has yet to move in.
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