Big Tech
Tech’s Retrenchment Hammers Landlords With Glut of Empty Offices
- Office space for sublease is double what it was pre-pandemic
- Microsoft, Meta and Amazon are all axing jobs and real estate
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US tech giants, grappling with a post-pandemic slowdown, have already laid off tens of thousands of workers. Now they’re dumping millions of square feet of office space, pushing vacancies in city centers to record highs and ratcheting up pressure on the commercial real estate industry.
No sector is looking to sublease more office space than Big Tech, according to Jones Lang LaSalle Inc. Alphabet Inc., Meta Platforms Inc., Microsoft Corp. and Amazon.com Inc. have all announced plans to reduce their office footprint. Amazon has paused construction at a new campus near Washington, DC, and Microsoft is reevaluating plans for a project in Atlanta.