By the Daily Post staff
Palantir, the data analytics company that has often been the focus of protests in Palo Alto for its contracts with the federal government, has moved its headquarters from Palo Alto to Denver. But it appears the company is retaining its offices in downtown Palo Alto.
The move was first reported by the Denver Business Journal. Palantir’s website has been updated to show that its headquarters are in Denver, and that Palo Alto is just one of five locations where the company has offices.
The news isn’t a surprise. In May, CEO Alex Karp told “Axios on HBO” that his company was “getting close” to deciding whether to leave Palo Alto.
Karp blamed the “increasing intolerance and monoculture” of Silicon Valley for the company’s move.
Protesters have targeted Palantir, whose offices are in several downtown Palo Alto locations, for selling technology to federal agencies such as Immigration and Customs Enforcement. The demonstrators claimed Palantir’s customers violated human rights.
Karp admitted that some of his favorite employees resigned over the controversies.
“I had people protesting me. People protesting me, some of whom I think asked really legitimate questions,” said Karp in an interview that aired May 24. “I’ve asked myself if I were younger, at college, would I be protesting me? And you know, it depends?”
Co-founder Peter Theil told the Wall Street Journal in 2013 that Silicon Valley wasn’t an ideal place for startup companies any more.
“We have to figure out ways to make housing more affordable in these places,” Thiel said. “When people start companies they are typically getting paid in equity and not a large salary. The way rent and housing costs have gone through the roof in a number of cities where people go to start companies is a tremendous problem. Zoning rules, while well-intentioned, have had the effect of making it almost impossible for people to take a pay cut and make a leap.”
good riddance … let’s hope the community has some say on who replaces them
If they pack up and leave, it will really empty out downtown. They must have had thousands of people downtown. The businesses who relied on downtown workers (before the lockdown) will be hurt by this. You would have hoped that somebody in the city would have tried to dissuade Palantir from leaving when they first heard the company was looking around. My guess is that Tesla is next.
Good Riddance. If you don’t know if your younger self would be questioning your work or not, then you are certainly in some form of moral disarray.
Looks like a lot of people leaving California: Tesla, Lyft now suspending service, with Uber likely to follow. Plus Gov Newsom has gutted small businesses with this unconstitutional lockdown.
They will come after you too wealthy Palo Altans with higher taxes, because there will be no one else left to tax!
Wuhan, ground zero, is over Covid and partying already! See here the videos and photos of Wuhanites with no masks and no social distancing: https://www.zerohedge.com/medical/party-ground-zero-wuhan-water-park-hosts-massive-concert-no-social-distancing-or-masks
They achieved this without a vaccine folks! Freedom! Gov Newsom said we have to be locked down until a vaccine. This is the biggest lie ever and these companies and people who see through the lies are leaving in droves!
Seems a lot of people and companies are leaving: Tesla, Lyft now suspending service, with Uber to follow. And Gov Newsom has gutted small businesses and restaurants. They will come after you wealthy Palo Alto residents too with higher taxes until there is no one left.
Are they going to take Palo Alto Forward with them? I think that was a front group they sponsored to get more housing for their employees. The could call it “Denver Forward”
Liberals are running everyone out. Really difficult to be a moderate-conservative in this town, they silence everyone. Someone in my neighborhood said, “I cannot believe she has a Trump sign. She’s an immigrant. How could she have a Trump sign? I am no longer speaking to her ever again.” Liberals are unhinged.
Less sales tax for the city’s revenues. More cuts for the City?
Jenny, you’re the one that’s unhinged. Last time I checked liberals aren’t lynching people like you and your neo-fascists are. “Boo hoo, I have to face societal consequences for supporting a president who puts children in cages :(((“ I have no sympathy. You should try Alabama instead of California, we won’t miss you.
Alex, you’re wrong on both counts. 1. The “peaceful protesters” are the ones attacking people in the streets, the most recent case happening on Sunday when a truck driver was kicked in the head by “peaceful protesters” in Portland. 2. The idea of putting kids caught at the border in cages began with Obama, and was policy when Trump arrived.
Beginning in 2014 Google, Facebook, Apple, Dropbox, Oracle and nearly four dozen other Bay Area tech companies, all built or expanded facilities in Texas; LiveOps Cloud also, has since moved out of state from Silicon Valley, driven by what their CEO articulated in his press conference were “government created reasons” – Among them: “Egregiously high taxes, over-burdensome regulations, excessive development fees, and suffocating land-use policies all of which have contributed to unaffordable housing for potential new hires.”
Since 2009, there have been more than 1,400 publicly reported “Disinvestment Events” – across all industries – in California, though estimates the actual tally of companies leaving the state is approaching 10,000.
California’s highly-educated workforce is not so unique anymore, and its quality of life has been tarnished by massive illegal immigration, regulatory and affordability issues, and the afore mentioned horrific taxation.
If California’s anti-business attitudes don’t change – and change quickly – who will be left to prop-up the State’s burgeoning welfare state and radical environmental agenda? Based upon the near ceaseless onslaught of ballot Measures and Propositions targeting increased taxes on property owners and mortgagors – with yet another, most aggressive barrage on approach come November – it is blatantly clear who these economic illiterates are going after, in order to support their organized labor financed economic failures.
People had wake up – and SOON – to the fact that California – at every level of government – is and has been controlled by economic illiterates for far too long. If something isn’t done soon, we’ll never be able to turn this nightmare around.