AUSTIN, Texas — A shake-up could be on the way for a tech company that's headquartered in Austin.
Oracle, a tech giant specializing in database management, is considering relocating its headquarters from Austin to Nashville.
Oracle moved its headquarters to Austin in 2020. It sits on a 560,000-square-foot campus just south of Lady Bird Lake.
John Boyd, a Florida-based site selection expert with the Boyd Company, said Oracle’s move to Austin was a big one.
“It marked one of the first real, significant, high-tech, massive projects to leave the Bay Area for Austin,” Boyd said.
Boyd's company helps corporations select cities for their headquarters.
“Site selection is both a science and an art,” Boyd said. “Quantifying business cost advantages, measuring taxes in one market versus another. The artistry really has to do with measuring quality of life issues for employees, [...] quality of schools, access to health care, transportation assets.”
Boyd said Oracle really highlights Austin's business potential.
“The terrific workforce, the tech ecosystem that's now globally renowned in Austin. But a lot can change in four or five years,” Boyd said.
On Tuesday, Oracle co-founder and chairman Larry Ellison suddenly announced at a health care provider summit that the company is moving its headquarters to Nashville.
“We're moving this huge campus – which will ultimately be our world headquarters,” Ellison said.
“I'm not surprised at all,” Boyd said. “I mean, Oracle's transitioning into the health care services market."
Oracle recently purchased Cerner – a data information system provider for hospitals – in a $28 billion deal in 2022. Boyd said this marked this transition.
“Nashville is one of the nation's largest health care services markets in the nation. It employs almost 200,000 people in Nashville. There's 18 publicly traded health care companies in Nashville,” Boyd said. “So, this move makes sense for a number of reasons."
Boyd said that it’s just cheaper to live in Nashville, too. He said both Austin and Nashville have had high costs of living due to rapid growth in populations, but it’s roughly 10 to 15% more affordable in Nashville.
“So, if this does happen, it’ll certainly be a big win for Nashville,” Boyd said.
Boyd said the move is similar to a company rebrand.
What does this mean for Austin?
“They should be encouraged by Larry Ellison's statements about being committed to Austin,” Boyd said. “They have roughly 3,000 employees in Austin. They've indicated they're going to expand their current presence in Austin. So, I would take a measured approach to all this and continue to focus on workforce development, affordability."
KVUE reached out to Opportunity Austin, which said in a statement that it's not sure what Oracle’s move to Nashville will mean for their presence in Austin, but Oracle has had employees here since before its headquarters.
Opportunity Austin said Nashville’s life sciences ecosystem is more mature today, but Austin is quickly gaining ground, saying Austin has more than 300 life sciences companies and will continue to grow that number.
Oracle did not respond when asked for comment.
Boomtown is KVUE's series covering the explosive growth in Central Texas. For more Boomtown stories, head to KVUE.com/Boomtown.