SAN JOSE — Hewlett Packard Enterprise anticipates it will employ well over 1,000 workers — and possibly more than 2,000 — at a San Jose site that will serve as a tech hub in the wake of the company’s relocation of its headquarters from Silicon Valley to Texas.
HPE will shift its headquarters to Houston from its new San Jose campus at 6280 America Center, but as part of the move, the tech titan will consolidate several South Bay operations at that north San Jose site.
“Once we consolidate, the San Jose site will become a very vibrant space, and a technology hub,” Antonio Neri, HPE president and chief executive officer, said in an interview with this news organization.
Although San Jose will lose the prestige of the HPE headquarters, the Bay Area’s largest city anticipates it will gain several hundred jobs because numerous positions will be moved from South Bay cities such as Santa Clara and Milpitas to the new innovation center in San Jose.
“Between 600 and 1,200” jobs will be added to the current headcount of 1,100 at the San Jose innovation hub, according to Adam Bauer, director of issues management and policy communications for HPE.
That means potentially 1,700 to 2,300 people could work at the north San Jose tech campus.
Neri made it clear that HPE won’t turn its back on Silicon Valley despite relocating to Houston.
“We are incredibly committed so Silicon Valley,” Neri said. “This is a digital site where we showcase all of our technology.” Neri described the San Jose campus as “state-of-the-art.”
HPE will shift workers from at least three South Bay locations into the north San Jose complex. The employees will move from:
— Aruba offices in Santa Clara.
— Silver Peak Systems offices in Santa Clara.
— HP storage operations and high-performance computing businesses in Milpitas.
“Aruba will continue to operate its worldwide headquarters in Silicon Valley, consolidating operations into HPE’s San Jose campus, with the exception of our lab which will remain in Santa Clara,” Keerti Melkote, president and founder of Aruba, said in a blog post about the operational shifts.
The consolidation will do more than enable HPE to operate more efficiently in Silicon Valley, Neri said.
“We will be able to get cross-pollination and better innovation,” Neri said. “A lot of forward-looking technologies will be developed in San Jose.”
HPE insisted that the headquarters shift and the consolidations to San Jose won’t cause layoffs.
“There are no layoffs associated with this,” HPE’s Bauer said.
HPE acknowledged, however, that it’s entirely possible that the overall HPE headcount in the Bay Area could shrink. That’s because some employees might choose to leave the company rather than relocate to Houston.
“Relocation is voluntary,” Bauer said.
HPE began construction earlier this year on its new Houston headquarters.
The tech company believes it can tap a diverse workforce in the Houston area. It also sees Silicon Valley as being rich in the talent that is needed to create technologies that are truly cutting-edge.
“This is part of HPE’s strategy to maintain a strategic presence in Silicon Valley as a hub for technological talent and innovation,” Aruba’s Melkote said in the blog post.
HPE intends to continue providing its employees with the option to work remotely with modern technologies, a growing trend among tech companies due to the ongoing woes and uncertainties caused by the coronavirus.
The impact of the deadly bug has prompted HPE, Aruba, and the other company units to think much differently about how offices would be populated and used.
“We are re-designing some of the interiors of the San Jose campus,” Neri said. “The way we are going to work will be different. There will be more open space. Yet at the same time, it will be more collaborative than ever before. I’m super bullish and excited about what we are doing.”
