VMware Plans Huge Expansion

SOURCE: VMware

In one of Silicon Valley’s biggest real estate deals in years, cloud-computing pioneer VMware confirmed Wednesday that it’s expanding its headquarters in the Stanford Research Park, taking over an adjacent 1 million square feet of building space left vacant when pharmaceutical giant Roche moved out more than a year ago.

The move, which brings with it as many as 2,500 new jobs, could make VMware the largest employer in Palo Alto, outside of Stanford University and its hospitals. It’s symbolic not just of VMware’s own phenomenal rise as a leader in the esoteric field of virtualization technology, which essentially turns computers into multitasking maestros, but of a tech-hiring resurgence sweeping Silicon Valley. Some observers say real estate moves like VMware’s, along with increasingly fierce competition for young engineering talent, could be a harbinger of a larger regional renaissance.

“I can’t say exactly when it started, but we’re seeing a very distinct change in the Research Park and around the valley toward a new optimism,” said Jean Snider, managing director of real estate for Stanford University who helped coordinate the corporate musical chairs behind the lease transfer. “There’s a real bullishness out there and it’s not just VMware. All these companies are talking about hiring.”

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