Published August 23, 2021
Giants of tech—and real estate.
Tech companies are jumping deeper into real estate—and not merely to expand their offices.
Facebook is developing 59 acres near its Menlo Park headquarters, with over 1,700 apartments, a hotel, retail stores, restaurants, bike lanes, and public green spaces.
Apple has already spent $1 billion of its $2.5 billion pledge for housing projects to address California's affordable housing crisis. That money has gone toward new housing, construction, first-time and low-income home buyer programs, and more.
Tesla is building what will become the nation's "most sustainable" solar neighborhood in Southeast Austin, where they're having a housing crisis of their own. The homes will have Tesla solar roof files and EV charging stations.
And Amazon recently announced it's giving away $40 million worth of unused land for Virginia to build 550 new, affordable housing units near its second headquarters.
On the surface, this all sounds pretty good, though of course some locals are concerned about tech companies bringing more traffic and congestion to the area.
And considering the flack Big Tech has received for creating or exacerbating existing housing crises, it only seems right that they'd dig into those deep pockets to solve an immediate need.
Of course, they're not merely doing this out of the kindness of their Big Tech hearts. The real estate industry is the single largest asset class in the world.
And they want more than their fair share.
