When Elon Musk took over Twitter in 2022, it marked a new era for the struggling San Francisco company.
As the deal neared completion, Musk, the eccentric entrepreneur known for leading Tesla and SpaceX, tweeted, “Entering Twitter HQ — let that sink in!” with a video of him carrying a white sink to Twitter’s San Francisco office.
Two years later, the business is moving out.
Twitter, now known as X, is expected to close its San Francisco headquarters this month, leaving behind the Mid-Market neighborhood it has called home since 2012. The company is reportedly moving its headquarters to Austin but plans to relocate its San Francisco employees to San Jose and Palo Alto, where it has already listed job openings.
The departure is another blow to a city that has been buffeted by high-profile business departures that once held up Twitter as a key part of its revival. Downtown San Francisco’s vacancy rates have ballooned as tech companies slashed their real estate expenses and halted office expansion plans after the pandemic.
Confronted with a falloff in foot traffic, major retailers such as Nordstrom and Anthropologie also shuttered their stores amid heightened concerns about crime, theft, vandalism, drug use and homelessness.