Palantir Technologies, the data-mining company on the verge of going public, is moving to Denver, following a flight from Silicon Valley by chairman Peter Thiel and CEO Alex Karp.
The company was founded 17 years ago a few miles from Stanford University in Palo Alto, Calif., and has grown to occupy a significant presence in the upscale college town. The company has a dozen or so properties scattered across Palo Alto’s downtown, which are now empty as employees work from home to slow the spread of the coronavirus.
Palantir changed its website earlier this week to list Denver as its new headquarters. A company spokeswoman declined to comment.
Thiel and Karp have publicly questioned the value of remaining in California and recently pulled up stakes in the state they’d called home for decades.
Thiel, a prominent supporter of U.S. President Donald Trump, has loudly criticized the Valley, calling it a liberal mono-culture, and moved himself and some of his investment firms to other parts of the U.S. Karp relocated to New Hampshire earlier this year and is working in a home office he calls “the barn.”
The decision to move the headquarters comes as Palantir is expected to soon enter the public markets. The company plans to list shares directly in late September, Bloomberg previously reported. Venture investors last valued the company in 2015 at $20 billion, with the value fluctuating since then on the secondary markets.
The Denver Business Journal reported the move earlier Wednesday.