eBay Reinforces San Jose Commitment Through Strategic Office Consolidation

San Jose has secured another win for its corporate ecosystem as eBay opts to close the San Francisco office by the end of September and relocate 198 employees to the headquarters located at 2025 Hamilton Avenue.

This transition has brought together professionals spanning various departments, from senior directors and vice presidents to financial analysts and software engineers, all now anchored in San Jose.

The move has come amid broader workforce refinements at the company yet emphasizes a clear preference for the operational advantages available right here, including robust infrastructure and access to regional talent networks.

Source: SVBJ

Google Deepens Commitment to San Jose with New Meadow Point Research Campus in Alviso

Google has outlined a major research and development hub in the Alviso district. This project will expand the company's footprint and signal strong ongoing investment in the Bay Area's largest city.

At the site near 5087 Disk Drive, crews will demolish an existing warehouse to make way for one to three new buildings totaling up to 482,800 square feet. Google has also arranged for a dedicated 250-megawatt electricity facility with PG&E to power the lab spaces effectively. The company has already invested $452 million in acquiring ten buildings in the surrounding area to form the Meadow Point campus.

These changes will attract advanced research teams and create high-quality jobs that will bolster North San Jose as a key employment center. Google has maintained other nearby locations on West Tasman Drive and Brokaw Road, and this development has built seamlessly on that foundation.

Even as the company has paused its Downtown West mixed-use project near the SAP Center and Diridon station in Downtown San Jose, this Alviso initiative has demonstrated continued dedication.

Source: The Mercury News

Google Bolsters San Jose Presence Through Alviso Office Acquisition

Google has completed the purchase of a substantial office property in San Jose's Alviso neighborhood for $25.2 million. The two-story, 83,000-square-foot building at 4500 North 1st Street has joined the company's expanding collection of facilities in the area.

The acquisition has placed the new property directly beside the Meadow Point campus where Google already maintains nine buildings. Constructed in 2018, the facility came equipped with surface parking and will deliver immediate operational advantages through seamless integration with the surrounding infrastructure.

Thousands of Googlers will relocate to the Meadow Point campus this spring and bring more activity to northern San Jose. Google has restructured other real estate holdings at the same time by moving its cloud computing division to Sunnyvale and reducing subleased spaces. These steps have underscored a focused commitment to core locations here.

Anyone passionate about San Jose's future will see the benefits ripple outward as activity increases around Alviso. While it's not the 8 million SQFT Google campus we are all waiting for in Downtown San Jose, it's a step in the right direction.

Source: SVBJ

Alviso's Tech Transformation: A New Data Center Hub

San Jose's northern district of Alviso is stepping into the spotlight with a bold new proposal. A massive data center is on the horizon, set to transform a patch of land once dreamed up as part of an entertainment district.

Located near the popular Topgolf venue, this proposed development includes a three-story data center spanning 295,100 square feet, paired with a three-story energy supply facility adding another 167,400 square feet—totaling a whopping 462,500 square feet. This is a step up from an earlier proposal of 346,900 square feet, showing growing ambition for the site.

The story of this land adds a fascinating twist. Back in 2018, Terra Ventures envisioned an entertainment district here, complete with restaurants, shops, hotels, and the Topgolf that’s now a local favorite. While most of that vision didn’t materialize—one hotel site at 7 Topgolf Drive even faced foreclosure—the area is now pivoting to tech and residential growth. That same hotel site is being considered for 780 affordable apartments, proving San Jose’s ability to adapt and thrive.

Challenges like securing enough electricity for the data center and financing affordable housing are real, but they haven’t slowed the excitement. This project could help draw more tech giants, spark job growth, and solidify San Jose’s place as a global tech powerhouse.

Source: The Mercury News

New Affordable Housing Project on The Alameda in San Jose

A new affordable housing project takes shape near Downtown, offering a beacon of hope amid the city’s ongoing housing challenges. As reported by The Mercury News, this development is more than just a collection of apartments—it’s a bold move to make San Jose a more inclusive, thriving place to live.

What sets this project apart is its use of advanced construction techniques, which could pave the way for faster, more cost-effective housing solutions across the region. The units are built offsite leveraging modular construction, and then assembled like LEGOs at the final construction site. The apartments are tailored to low-income residents, featuring a variety of unit sizes to accommodate different families and individuals.

The project will come in at seven stories and include 120 parking spaces, some of which are below ground. Amenities would include a rooftop deck, gym, and a lounge area.

Beyond the homes themselves, this project promises a boost to San Jose’s economy. Construction will generate jobs, and once residents settle in, local businesses near Downtown are likely to see increased foot traffic and spending. This ripple effect underscores how affordable housing isn’t just about shelter—it’s about strengthening the entire community. San Jose’s growth as a tech and innovation hub depends on its ability to support all its residents, and developments like this help make that vision a reality.

This effort fits into a broader wave of progress in San Jose. From workforce housing to mixed-use projects, the city is embracing creative solutions to meet its housing needs. Partnerships between developers, city leaders, and community groups are driving these initiatives forward, proving that collaboration can yield real results. As San Jose evolves, it’s carving out a reputation as a city that balances ambition with accessibility—a place where opportunity isn’t just for the few, but for everyone.

World's first radio show was in... San Jose

SJtoday had a great post last week about a San Jose invention most people don't realize came from San Jose, the radio. Well, there is some debate on who invented the actual radio technology, but at minimum the first radio broadcasts were in San Jose. 

It all went back to the early 1900s, well before the Silicon  Valley era. Charles David "Doc" Herrold was the first radio broadcaster in the world and in 1910 created the first radio show. At one point, he had to tap into San Jose street car power lines for transmission. It's an interesting story and you can check it out at the source link below.

Source: SJtoday

Samsung is launching new AI-focused smartphones in San Jose

Samsung is gearing up to launch their newest flagship devices on January 17th at their North American headquarters, right here in San Jose. The theme is "Galaxy AI is coming." 

It's not entirely clear how Samsung will spice up their lineup but is easy to speculate that they will have components similar to ChatGPT or Google Bard. The new phones could also have new hardware to accelerate AI functionality or apply AI to phone use itself (e.g. predicting what you are going to do and setting up automatic routines). Whatever happens, they'll be filming here.

Samsung's North American Headquarters is located in North San Jose at 3655 North First street.

Source: The Mercury News

San Jose metro is still the best for tech

Once again, San Jose is the top metro in the United States for tech productivity. In 2019 San Jose brought in $30 billion more than the runner up, San Francisco. 

This statistic is even more impressive considering we now only have the 5th highest count of tech workers. New York, LA, Washington, and the San Francisco metros all have between double and quadruple our population and in the case of New York nearly double the number of tech workers. Despite this, we still have a greater economic output in the tech industry. The death of Silicon Valley has been severely exaggerated.

Source: SVBJ

Google expanding to North San Jose

Google has a long term vision of building an epic 8 million SQFT campus in Downtown San Jose near Diridon. That project that will probably take a decade to come to fruition. Fortunately, there is another Google project in North San Jose with a much shorter horizon.

Google has just secured leases on three buildings totaling 611,535 SQFT that have yet to be constructed at 60 North Brokaw (near Casino M8trix). Peery-Arrillaga, the developer, has already requested permits to start construction. Two of the buildings would be eight stories tall, while the third is four stories.

The buildings could accommodate up to 4,900 employees, and they could start moving in as early as 2021. That sounds like ages from now, but is less than two years away. Since Mountain View real estate is completely tapped out, this is the first step in a long journey for Google to move the majority of their Silicon Valley operations to San Jose. Without major changes in building policies up north, San Jose is without a doubt Google's future.

Sources: SVBJ, San Jose Inside

Daimler and Bosch will trial autonomous taxis in San Jose

All roads are headed towards robotaxis. Every major auto manufacturer is investing heavily in self-driving technology, and services are coming far sooner than you think. Waymo--which is owned by Google--will be the first to launch a paid service using autonomous vehicles. Arizona will be the first to get the service over the next couple months, followed by the Bay Area.

Right on the heels of Waymo, Daimler and Bosch are doing a pilot in San Jose during the second half of 2019. They will use a fully autonomous Mercedes Benz S Class to transport passengers between Downtown San Jose and the San Carlos/Stevens Creek corridor (Santana Row & Valley Fair). That is probably the route in San Jose in greatest need for a transit upgrade.

Unlike Waymo, who is already running some cars with no safety driver--they will have two safety drivers in each vehicle. You will be able to summon a car by using an app and presumably the service will be either very low cost or free during the trial period. Welcome to the future.

Source: Engadget, SVBJ

Electric car company grows in San Jose

NIO, a Chinese EV startup, is doubling down in North San Jose. They are moving into a 100,362 SQFT building at 3100 N. First Street, which was previously home to Broadcom and Hitachi. NIO already employs 520 people in San Jose, so this is a positive sign that more high-tech jobs will be opening up soon.

NIO currently only manufactures a single car, the EP9. It's a $1.2M supercar with 1,341 horsepower that currently holds the electric car record for the Nurburgring and for the fastest autonomous lap at the Circuit of the Americas. Like Tesla they decided to start with a halo car and work their way down to cars the masses can afford. Their next car will be a 7-seat SUV called the ES8 that will compete with Tesla's Model X.

NIO has already raised $1 billion and are rumored to be gearing up for a US IPO that could raise another $2 billion. It's clear that the auto industry is going to look a lot different in 5-10 years than it does today. If NIO turns out to be another disruptor like Tesla, then San Jose has a lot to gain as the brand grows.

Source: SVBJ

Apple's Worldwide Developers Conference is returning to Downtown San Jose

WWDC 2018 will take place in San Jose for the second year in the row. This is Apple's largest event and it will take over the McEnery Convention Center as well as various other parts of Downtown from June 4-8.

The conference starts with a keynote that goes over the latest software releases for MacOS and iOS devices. Often times, major new hardware is announced as well. Last year the Apple Homepod as well as new iPads and an iMac Pro were all revealed.

The 2017 event appeared to be a huge success. Thousands of attendees roamed Downtown and multiple parallel events related to the Apple community also took place in the area. Feedback from attendees on location was very positive. The true test of success was that Apple chose to run the event in San Jose again this year instead of returning the conference to Moscone in San Francisco. Hopefully the 2018 event will be even better than last year's conference.

If you are a developer and are interested in attending, all you need to do is sign up for a lottery by March 22nd for a chance to spend $1,599 on a conference pass.

Source: SVBJ

Saturday Stats: 2017 Meta Post

It's that time of year again to look back and see the top "Saturday Stats" of 2017. The list is pretty impressive yet again. San Jose ranked as the top city for productivity, tech jobs, and economic momentum. Happiness and health are also up there. 

You can also see the full list of "Saturday Stats" (including previous years) with article links over here.

San Jose is the #1 Best Place for Tech Jobs

In what should come as no surprise, San Jose took the top spot again in Nerd Wallet's annual study of best cities for tech jobs. They looked at the largest 381 US metros and evaluated the percentage of jobs in tech, annual median wage for tech jobs, and gross rent. Despite having astronomical housing costs, we still came in way ahead of the competition. We have about double the number of tech jobs per capita as any other city in the top 10 and our median annual tech salary blew away every other city at the top of the list. Even SF was a distant 9th place.

Source: Nerd Wallet

New San Jose high-tech 'megafactory'

Veoldyne LiDAR has chosen South San Jose as its location to manufacture cutting-edge sensors for advanced tech such as self-driving cars. LiDAR is similar to radar, but uses light from a laser instead of radio waves to create a three-dimensional image. Next time you see a prototype autonomous vehicle on the freeway, look for the spinning disk on the roof. That is a LiDAR sensor. It is also used for drone aircraft and industrial robots.

Manufacturing will take place in a 200,000 SQFT building at 5521 Hellyer Avenue, formerly home to Nanosolar until 2013. Hundreds of high-paying San Jose jobs will be created and production is expected to begin soon.

Source: SVBJ

Saturday Stats: 2016 Meta Post!

It's that time of year again to look back and see the top "Saturday Stats" of 2016. The list is yet again quite impressive. San Jose ranked as the top city for salaries, jobs, life expectancy, and economy. Even Trick-or-Treating got a shout-out this year. Below are my favorite rankings for the year.

You can also see the full list of "Saturday Stats" (including previous years) with article links over here.

Rank

Stat

Source

Year

Notes

#1	Longest Life Expectancy in the US	SVBJ	2016
#10	Best Place to Live	US News & World Report	2016	SF #9
#1	Fastest Growing Private Economies	Headlight Data	2016	SF and NY not in top 10
#2	Best City for Young Professionals	Forbes	2016	SF #1
#10	Best Place to Live	U.S. News	2016	SF #9
#3	Best Places for STEM Grads	Nerdwallet	2016	SF #6
#1	City for Jobs	Glassdoor	2016	SF #2
#2	Best City for Jobs	Forbes	2016	SF #1
#1	Top City for Small Business	CNBC	2016	NY #2, SF #3
#3	Best Metro for Entrepreneurship Growth	Kauffman	2016	SF #6
#2	Healthiest City in America	24/7 Wall St.	2016	SF #14
#3	Most Educated City in the US	WalletHub	2016	SF #7
#1	Fastest Growing Economy in the US	CNBC	2016	SF #5, NY #23
#1	Best City to Trick-or-Treat In	Zillow	2016	SF #3
#1	Best City for Web Developers	Zippia	2016	SF #5
#1	Best Performing City in the US	Milken Institute	2016	SF #3

Inside San Jose's BriteLab

First off, let me say that I have really missed Nathan Donato-Weinstein's articles in the SVBJ. I am thrilled to see him writing again in the SJ Economy blog.

He recently visited BriteLab, a high-tech South San Jose manufacturing company that makes everything from 3D printers to electric skateboards. The 55,000 SQFT space is a startup incubator that helps new companies bring their products to market. BriteLab provides product-development, design, engineering, manufacturing, and support services. Currently BriteLab employs 75 people, but they are planning to grow to 150.

For all the details, check out Nathan's article over here.

Source: SJ Economy

SJC now has robot helpers

San Jose International now has three robots to help "Silicon Valley's Airport" feel more like, well, Silicon Valley's Airport. The set of robots cost $120,000 and are named Norma, Amelia, and Piper. They conveniently speak six different languages and can help travelers find their way, locate places to dine, and provide helpful information. They'll even take photos and email them to you. This is a neat little way to make the airport more interesting to visitors.

The robots were programmed by a Milpitas-based company called 22 Miles and manufactured by Korea-based Future Robot.

You can find SJC's newest robotic attractions near Gates 11, 21, and 25. For more info, you can follow the trio on Twitter at #SJCRobots.

Source: SVBJ

1st Annual Timmy Awards

The 1st Annual Timmy Awards is a new event recognizing the best places for tech professionals to work. There will be cocktails, hor d'oeuvres, music, and product demos. The moderator for the night is Katie Roof from Tech Crunch and the award presenters are Kerry Davis from Engadget, Marc Acton from Mix 106.5, and Jennifer Elias from the Silicon Valley Business Journal. Categories include Best Tech Startup, Best Tech Work Culture, and Best Tech Manager.

The event will take place this Thursday, September 22nd from 6pm-9pm at the San Jose Women's Club. For more information head over to the Tech in Motion site. You can RSVP for free over here.

We're excited to present Silicon Valley's 1st Annual Timmy Awards in an effort to recognize the best places for technology professionals to work. We asked the Silicon Valley tech community to weigh in by nominating companies they believe deserve to win and then voting for the finalists!

Organizations and individuals will be crowned the winners of each of the categories below on September 22nd. The evening will begin with cocktails, hor d'oeuvres, music and product demos from the best of the best in Silicon Valley tech.

Silicon Valley's Best Technology Manager

Bill Hu – CEO of Kika Tech
Erik Kostelnik - Founder & CEO of TextRecruit
Han Jin - CEO of LucidCam
Venkatachalam Rangasamy – Principal Software Architect at Equinix
Waqaas Al-Siddiq - CEO of Biotricity

Silicon Valley's Best Technology Startup 

Avegant
Blue River Technology
Cloudian
DataVisor
Datos IO
Engagio
Liquid Robotics
Loop Commerce
Primary Data
Rubrik

Silicon Valley's Best Technology Work Culture 

Branch
Drawbridge
Identity Guard
Kespry
MATRIXX Software Inc.
Peloton Technology
Pinger, Inc.
Retail Solutions Inc. (RSi)
Shipwire
Whipsaw, Industrial Design and Engineering

General Assembly is building a training campus in San Jose

General Assembly, an "Edtech" startup founded in 2011, already has 25,000 graduates from their 15 campuses across the globe. They train their students with practical skills that can be applied immediately to the most in-demand corporate jobs today (coding, web/app design, data science, marketing, et cetera).

They are expanding to 25 campuses by the end of the year and one of those will be in San Jose. The location is yet to be determined but they will host classes, workshops, and events at the new campus. Until the final space is acquired, they will be leveraging San Jose's co-working spaces--something they should be familiar with as General Assembly was originally going to be a co-working company.

General Assembly's only other Bay Area campus is in San Francisco.

Source: SVBJ