San Francisco Chronicle (Sunday)
Once an epicenter, X quietly exits S.F.
On Friday morning, X’s last official day in San Francisco, the entrance of its Mid-Market headquarters was quiet. A smattering of people walked through the building’s grand Art Deco doors, and the few who said they were X employees declined to speak to a Chronicle reporter or ignored requests for comment.
The social media company formerly known as Twitter was founded in the city in 2006 and was headquartered in the troubled stretch of Market Street between Ninth and 10th streets since 2012. It was one of the most prominent symbols of the 2010s tech boom that transformed the city’s skyline and propelled the municipal budget to record highs. Thousands of then-Twitter workers filled its former furniture mart headquarters, attracted in part because of a controversial payroll tax break.
That is now a distant memory, as the company’s presence has dwindled for years. First came remote work in 2020. Then Tesla and SpaceX chief Elon Musk’s $44 billion purchase of the company in 2022 shredded its workforce, with upward of 75% of the company’s roughly 3,000 workers laid off.
In the large lobby that once bustled with activity, only a trickle of workers were seen Friday. Two security guards said hello to the dozen or so people who walked in. X did not respond to a request for comment, having disbanded its media relations department during Musk’s layoffs.
X’s headquarters is headed to Austin, Texas, according to
Musk’s post on the social network in July. Details around location and timing haven’t been revealed, but X will maintain offices in Palo Alto and San Jose even after leaving San Francisco, according to a company memo.
It’s also unclear whether X will continue to pay rent at 1355 Market St., where it previously clashed with landlords Shorenstein and JPMorgan Chase. A lawsuit alleging unpaid rent was dismissed earlier this year, and the company has sought to sublease at least half of its space.
X is far from the only departure in the area. Following the pandemic, Mid-Market also lost Uber and Block, the financial services company founded by Twitter co-founder Jack Dorsey. Uber now has a sparkling new headquarters next to the Warriors’ arena in Mission Bay, while Block has a large hub in Oakland but no official headquarters.
Though X’s presence in San Francisco has diminished, it remains a popular destination for news and culture. It has become one of the primary battlegrounds for the presidential election, with Musk hosting former President Donald Trump for a lengthy talk last month. (Trump said during the talk that his opponent, Vice President Kamala Harris, had made San Francisco and California “unlivable.”) Musk endorsed Trump in the wake of the July assassination attempt on the Republican presidential nominee. Harris and her campaign also regularly post on the platform.
Walking past 1355 Market St. on Friday, Mehdi Kheredine, a French tourist visiting from Paris,
said he was surprised to realize it was X’s apparent last day — he had been following the saga from abroad in Paris.
The 33-year-old said Musk is “very famous” but has a “dark side and a bright side.” Since taking over Twitter, he’s “completely lost it,” Kheredine said.
“I don’t think he’s a bad person, but I really think he needs to step back,” he said.
Musk continued posting on X on Friday, trumpeting SpaceX’s Starlink internet service partnering with United Airlines. But as of midday, he had not acknowledged X’s departure from San Francisco.