They are expanding outside SF. Amazon's HQ seems to have deliberately avoided SF; Google has expanded significantly in Austin, Boulder, NYC. Uber has expanded s

They are expanding outside SF. Amazon's HQ seems to have deliberately avoided SF; Google has expanded significantly in Austin, Boulder, NYC. Uber has expanded significantly in Pittsburgh. The challenge is that remote offices are difficult to work with. Logistical difficulties like time zones and remote conferencing aside, often you get an all-you-see-is-all-there-is effect from senior management who tend to bias towards the area they are in vs. remote offices which encourages the most ambitious people to relocate back to the mother ship. This then trickles down the corporate ladder - the remote offices will have less exciting or visible projects, so employees there have lower chances at promotion, which provides an incentive for them to move too. It's not a question of companies opening remote offices, it's how they can reduce the effect of gravity that pulls employees back. Gravity aside, the problems described in the article also exist in these other cities too. I'm living in Boulder right now and the NIMBYism is strong here too - I definitely would not be able to afford a house in the city itself.