Big Moves

Another billion-dollar tech company swaps San Francisco for Austin

Austin aerial skyline with bridges and Lady Bird Lake

Austin is getting another big-time tech company.

Ryan Conine/Getty Images

Another big-time tech company is decamping from the City by the Bay to the City by Town Lake. It may not have the name recognition of Apple or Tesla, but Digital Realty, a multibillion-dollar company specializing in digital data, announced it is moving its headquarters from San Francisco to Austin.

"The central location, affordable cost of living, highly educated workforce and supportive business climate have helped make Texas an epicenter for business activity and technology growth," said CEO A. William Stein in a press release last week.

Digital Realty's new headquarters will be located off of Southwest Parkway, near Mopac, just a few minutes from downtown Austin.

Of the company's approximate 1,300 employees, about 20 percent are based in Texas, though it's still premature to project exactly how many will call Austin home. No cutbacks or layoffs are expected to happen in Digital Realty's other hubs.

Austin also gives the tech giant a chance to strengthen its foothold in Texas. Today, Digital Realty owns more than 30 data centers across the state, encompassing more than 4 million square feet and over 100 megawatts of customer capacity, the company says.

Among those is a connectivity hub the company scooped up in downtown Dallas in 2002. Along with its big move, Digital Realty also announced on January 14 that it "recently expanded upon its initial investment ... at 2323 Bryan Street in Dallas" and is likely to grow its presence in the Big D now that its headquarters are just a three-hour drive down I-35.

"As we continue to make strategic investments to best position Digital Realty for long-term growth, we are confident our expansion in Texas will help us meet the needs of our more than 4,000 global customers, while continuing to deliver value for our stakeholders, employees and the communities we serve around the world," Stein continued.

Digital Realty joins an ever-growing chorus of companies trading sunny California for (also sunny) Texas. In recent months, Tesla, Oracle, and even TikTok have announced plans to grow their local footprint, perhaps unsurprising, considering Austin once again was named the best tech city in the U.S. in November, outranking both Silicon Valley and San Francisco for the second year in row.

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share the road

Texas races to the bottom in new list of best states for cyclists

Photo by Justin Wallace on Unsplash

If you've ridden your bicycle in Austin, you already know how true this is.

In what will come as no surprise to cyclists around Austin, the state of Texas is not a good place for bicycle riding. According to a new report of the "Most Cycling-Friendly States in the U.S.," Texas comes in at No. 47 — meaning that only three other states are worse.

The report, from Philadelphia personal injury law firm KaplunMarx, examines all 50 states based on six metrics: Air quality index, the number of cyclist deaths per one million residents, bike routes per square mile, local government actions supporting cycling, federal funding for cycling projects, and bicycle laws.

Texas musters a mere 31 points out of 100 for its "cycling friendly score."

The most cycling-friendly state in the U.S.: Minnesota, which earned 84 points to claim the title.

According to the report's findings, there have been 15 local government actions per capita in Texas that integrate pedestrians and cyclists in transportation projects. Texas' has a 41 air quality index value, and there are approximately 1.2 bike routes per 1,000 square miles in the state.

On cyclist deaths, Texas does a little better, with three cyclist deaths per one million residents in Texas — about nine percent lower than the national average.

According to KaplunMarx founding partner Ted Kaplun, there is an average of 857 cyclist fatalities in the U.S. every year. He adds that every measure or community effort to improve cyclist-friendliness is beneficial for all Americans.

"It's crucial for all states to continually assess and enhance their cycling provisions, learning from both high-ranking peers and their own experiences," he says.

Top-ranking Minnesota has only one cyclist death per one million state residents. It also has about 27.2 bike routes per 1,000 square miles.

After Minnesota, the remaining top five best states for cyclists are Massachusetts (No. 2), Rhode Island (No. 3), Washington (No. 4), and Iowa (No. 5).

At the bottom of the list are Nevada (No. 48), Arizona (No. 49), and Utah (No. 50) — all of which performed far worse than Texas to be declared the three least cycling-friendly states.

The entire country still has areas for improvement when it comes to creating a safer environment for cyclists, regardless of where each state landed on the list, according to Kaplun.

"With over 53 million Americans riding bicycles regularly, the importance of cycling-friendly infrastructure and safety measures cannot be overstated," said Kaplun in the report. "This isn't just about rankings – it's about enhancing the quality of life, promoting sustainable transportation, and most crucially, saving lives."

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