
Palantir Moves Headquarters to Denver from Silicon Valley - bane
https://www.msn.com/en-us/money/companies/palantir-moves-headquarters-to-denver-from-silicon-valley/ar-BB18ahzV
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CobrastanJorji
This feels on-brand after they used their S-1 to complain about Silicon Valley
"elites."

> The engineering elite of Silicon Valley may know more than most about
> building software. But they do not know more about how society should be
> organized or what justice requires.

Presumably Denver elites know what justice requires.

~~~
bhupy
Or that Silicon Valley has no intrinsic advantage, and that they no longer
have to factor it in where they are physically situated. Denver probably came
out on top because they think it affords a better quality of life for their
employees and possibly more favorable tax regime.

~~~
CobrastanJorji
Those are excellent reasons to move to another area. I think that relocating
to other areas makes fantastic sense for lots of companies, Palantir included.
My point, though, was that Palantir went out of their way to rail against the
values and culture of Silicon Valley in their S-1. Repeatedly. These are all
quotes from their S-1:

> Our company was founded in Silicon Valley. But we seem to share fewer and
> fewer of the technology sector’s values and commitments.

> Our roots in the intelligence community and defense sector introduced us to
> unique demands that many companies in Silicon Valley and elsewhere did not
> address: security, stability, and transparency

> Palantir was founded on the premise that the most critical challenges cannot
> be solved from the comforts of Silicon Valley.

This all makes more sense now that we know they were planning to move shortly,
but it still struck me as weird and political. It read to me like "Remember,
US government, we don't get wishy washy about using technology for military
purposes like some of those other, differently-valued companies."

~~~
deevolution
Colorado is home to Lockheed Martin, one of the largest US defense
contractors. Sounds like a solid culture fit for Palantir.

~~~
monocasa
Lockheed Martin was based in Bethesda, MD last time I checked.

~~~
a3n
They have a big operation south of Denver.

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mwksl
The reception of this move appears to be... mixed[0]. As a Denver resident,
I'm interested in seeing if this moves some larger offices out of Boulder and
into Denver. Boulder seems to be suffering under the weight of zoning laws[1],
but Denver seems to be capable of expanding, or at least adapting[2].

[0]
[https://www.reddit.com/r/Denver/comments/iczx59/palantir_hq_...](https://www.reddit.com/r/Denver/comments/iczx59/palantir_hq_is_moving_from_palo_alto_to_denver_fun/)
[1] [https://www.nytimes.com/2016/07/04/business/how-anti-
growth-...](https://www.nytimes.com/2016/07/04/business/how-anti-growth-
sentiment-reflected-in-zoning-laws-thwarts-equality.html) [2]
[https://www.denverpost.com/2018/08/06/denveright-denver-
plan...](https://www.denverpost.com/2018/08/06/denveright-denver-plans-parks-
development-transit-trails/)

~~~
bitexploder
Boulder is our own mini SF here in Colorado. Housing is artificially expensive
and has many of the same things going on as SF regarding zoning. Really cool
and hip place that has become increasingly unaffordable over the last decade.

~~~
Balgair
> The last decade

It think it goes back a bit further than that. Boulder has been seven square
miles between the mountains and reality since the early 90's.

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johnward
Does anyone think this will start a trend of de-centralizing Silicon Valley?
I'm just wondering what the world looks like if these companies continue to
have remote employees. Will there be a need for an HQ in such a high cost
area?

~~~
Barrin92
I don't think a week goes by without an article about that but I honestly
don't see it. The concentration of talent and capital make Silicon Valley too
attractive.

I think people vastly overestimate the long-term impact of covid,
underestimate the benefits of agglomeration, underestimate the negatives of
remote work, and apart from a few individual companies I don't think there is
a trend even. I'm not even sure this move from Palantir is anything other than
some sort of strange branding exercise to get more Trump government contracts

~~~
0xfaded
I agree with you that SV isn't going anywhere. The money people and best
talent is entrenched there through their networks and simple things like home
ownership.

The other question is where else? Texas? Maybe but not exactly welcoming to
the liberal elitist attitudes. Europe? And you thought California is
unfriendly to business... Canada? Australia? New Zealand?

Like it or not, the West is still relies on the US for technical dominance.
And until there is an alternative, we should hope it stays that way a bit
longer.

~~~
dcolkitt
I'll shill for Florida here. I think a lot of tech companies looking for an
alternative to SV would do well to put it on the shortlist.

It has an extremely business friendly environment, a pro-immigrant attitude,
no state income tax, one of the top educational systems in the country, a
fairly blue-state ish culture, and (given the exodus from NJ/NY) a high
concentration of skilled professionals.

Similar to Silicon Valley, there's very little prejudice towards old money or
pre-conceived notions of what elites "should look like". Unlike Silicon
Valley, there's hardly any aversion to growth or gentrification. Job and
wealth creators are celebrated.

Living costs are pretty cheap, especially for idyllic locations. The housing
stock is newer and more modern. One can easily afford to live in walking
distance of world-class beaches on a FAANG salary.

The biggest downside is the humid summers, flat landscape, and mosquitoes. On
the other hand, the air pollution is markedly better than California or the
Northeast. There's more hours of sunshine per year. Also, unlike San
Francisco, human defecation on the street is virtually unheard of.

~~~
mxuribe
> ...one of the top educational systems in the country, a fairly blue-state
> ish culture...

Not knocking on your statement, but i had not been aware of these as
descriptive of Florida. I was under the impression that Florida was more of a
red state, and while not at the bottom education-wise, didn't think they were
near the top either. Again, not knocking your state, i just never heard of
that.

~~~
dcolkitt
This[1] has a breakdown of state performance in primary education with
detailed statistical adjustments for confounders outside the educational
system. The results are that Florida performs fourth best in the country
(behind Mass, Texas, and NJ).

[1] [https://www.vox.com/2015/10/26/9617514/test-scores-
naep-2013](https://www.vox.com/2015/10/26/9617514/test-scores-naep-2013)

~~~
mxuribe
Thanks for sharing; TIL!

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shrubble
Denver is very heavy with Federal government agencies. So in that sense it
seems to be a logical step.

~~~
heyflyguy
The ISR capital of DoD contracting and procurement.

~~~
vonmoltke
I don't think Denver has quite exceeded the Anne Arundel-Fairfax axis quite
yet.

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tom-_-
Ignore the grandstanding, the two reasons why companies move out of a
state/country:

1\. Tax laws

2\. Cheaper labor

Edit: 3. Be closer to the people that give them money

~~~
hn_throwaway_99
I don't think that's true of "winner take all/most" businesses anymore. Who
cares about saving 15% on labor in a business where the difference between the
highest quality employees and just "good" employees is literally billions in
valuation? There's a reason that so many of these giant incredibly profitable
business are in places with punitive tax laws and some of the most expensive
labor on the planet.

~~~
tom-_-
It's true, locality of talent pool matters..but covid has shown the degree to
which it matters is quickly diminishing as evidenced by the handful of
companies declaring WFH forever, or re-considering their office leases.

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bognition
It'll be very interesting to see how going remote impacts various urban
centers. I can imagine that centers like Silicon Valley will be hit hard as a
ton of their labor can work from anywhere. Whereas places like Boston that
have a heavy bio-tech investment are harder to relocate because you need
people working in physical labs.

~~~
athms
Silicon Valley is NOT an urban center, it is a suburban area of Santa Clara
County. It is Santa Clara Valley renamed, from Palo Alto down to San Jose and
a bit north to Milpitas. I don't expect the pandemic and recession to impact
Silicon Valley that much. You certainly don't see it in home prices or rents,
which have either remained stable or gone up.

San Francisco on the other hand is hurting. Both rents and home prices are
down.

~~~
grandmczeb
I was able to negotiate a pretty sizable rent decrease here in Palo Alto.
That's a single antidote obviously, but I think that would have been
impossible if covid wasn't having a significant impact on the housing market.

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commonturtle
It's unclear if a significant number of the employees are going to move from
PA to Denver or if Denver will simply be HQ in name.

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rmk
New Hampshire has no State Income Tax, nor any Sales Tax. Not entirely sure
whether they have their own version of a Capital Gains Tax (CA sure does).
Karp will reap the benefits of moving to NH. Not sure if he will escape CA Tax
Authorities coming after him (but if he has planned his move, he probably has
access to the best advice money can buy.)

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anderspitman
I have fond memories of the security guards at the Palantir building in Palo
Alto. I helped run street experiments for a wireless startup back in 2011 and
they always thought we were trying to hack their WiFi.

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LargoLasskhyfv
_Blucifer_ bursts out into braying laughter.

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Drunk_Engineer
I thought Palantir was headquartered in Langley?

~~~
Balgair
Nah, just their servers ;P

