{"id":3942,"date":"2025-10-15T00:59:06","date_gmt":"2025-10-15T00:59:06","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/3942\/"},"modified":"2025-10-15T00:59:06","modified_gmt":"2025-10-15T00:59:06","slug":"tech-company-ditches-bay-area-office-moves-hq-to-texas","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/3942\/","title":{"rendered":"Tech company ditches Bay Area office, moves HQ to Texas"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Bay Area is\u00a0losing<\/a> another tech headquarters to Texas, and this time, it\u2019s more than just symbolic<\/a>.<\/p>\n

GAF Energy, which sells solar panels<\/a> embedded in roof shingles, will shut down its San Jose headquarters on Dec. 13, it announced in a Thursday\u00a0WARN document, filed with California officials. The company uses the facility for researching, developing and manufacturing its solar shingles \u2014 a whole green energy factory at San Jose\u2019s southeastern corner,\u00a0operational<\/a> since 2021. But now, GAF Energy will lay off local workers and shift its official headquarters to Georgetown, Texas.<\/p>\n

Along with the plant\u2019s shutdown, the WARN said, GAF Energy will conduct a mass layoff of remote workers who report to the San Jose facility. The document, generally a required filing in the event of a mass layoff by the Worker Adjustment and Retraining Notification Act, listed 138 impacted roles total across in-person and remote roles, including a slew of electricians, technicians, engineers, roofers and managers.<\/p>\n

GAF Energy did not answer SFGATE\u2019s question about whether any of the San Jose workers would receive jobs at the other location, but President Martin DeBono provided a statement that pointed to larger business trends.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cIn light of ongoing changes in the solar industry, we are aligning our business and our team to focus on key markets where solar is most compelling for builders and homeowners,\u201d\u00a0DeBono wrote. He added that GAF Energy would be centralizing its operations, manufacturing, and research and development teams at its new headquarters in Georgetown, Texas. The company opened its manufacturing facility there in May 2024.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis decision was not taken lightly,\u201d DeBono continued. \u201cWe are grateful to our employees in San Jose for their contributions to the business and are committed to assisting those impacted through this transition.\u201d<\/p>\n

GAF Energy is owned by the manufacturing giant Standard Industries, which also oversees the roofing manufacturer\u00a0GAF. The energy company advertises its solar shingles as a hassle-free alternative to the traditional solar panels that attach separately to a rooftop.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s unclear what specific \u201congoing changes\u201d\u00a0DeBono was referencing, but the solar industry is in a state of flux, in California and beyond. In July, President Donald Trump signed legislation slashing<\/a> a 30% residential solar tax credit that made rooftop installations cheaper \u2014 he moved the end of the credits from 2034 to the end of this year. And over the past several years, California has rolled back some incentives<\/a> for installing solar panels.<\/p>\n

Compared with California, Texas is building housing at a rapid rate, potentially making the state a more appealing market for a solar provider like GAF Energy that aims to grab customers as they\u2019re adding or replacing a roof. A Realtor.com report<\/a> from February \u2014 published alongside that company\u2019s move<\/a> to Texas \u2014 said the Lone Star State accounted for 15% of the country\u2019s new house permits in 2024.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Work at a Bay Area tech company and want to talk? Contact tech reporter Stephen Council securely at\u00a0stephen.council@sfgate.com or on Signal at 628-204-5452.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Bay Area is\u00a0losing another tech headquarters to Texas, and this time, it\u2019s more than just symbolic. GAF…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":3943,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[4458,27,29,28],"class_list":["post-3942","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-texas","tag-sfgtech","tag-texas","tag-texas-headlines","tag-texas-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3942","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3942"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3942\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/3943"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3942"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3942"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3942"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}