Rambus strikes deal to move HQ to San Jose

SAN JOSE — Rambus has struck a deal to shift its corporate headquarters to San Jose and to exit Sunnyvale, the tech company said in a regulatory filing.

The Silicon Valley chip maker has leased roughly 90,000 square feet in the 237 @ First complex in north San Jose, according to a Securities and Exchange Commission filing.

“The office space will serve as the company’s corporate headquarters,” Rambus said in the SEC documents.

At present, Rambus maintains its headquarters at 1050 Enterprise Way in a part of Sunnyvale where tech behemoths such as Facebook, Google, and Amazon have undertaken major expansions of their operations and consume huge chunks of office space.

The remarkable expansions by the trio of titans have, in turn, intensified pressure on some companies to seek greener pastures elsewhere as rents rise and spaces dwindle in Sunnyvale.

Rambus’ lease in Sunnyvale is slated to expire at the end of June 2020.

“The company expects to move to the new premises during the summer of 2020,” Rambus said in the SEC filing, in sketching out the time frame for its relocation.

Potentially as many as 450 to 600 Rambus employees, or even more, could work in the north San Jose building the company has leased at 4453 N. First St.

The new Rambus offices are located in a part of San Jose that is witnessing a flurry of activity on the part of major tech companies.

Google, through a series of property purchases, has quietly assembled a vast campus of eight buildings along or near North First Street. Some of the buildings are across the street from the future Rambus headquarters site. Google also has leased several buildings slightly further south on North First Street from famed development firm Peery Arrillaga.

Roku, Samsung, and Hewlett Packard Enterprise also have jumped into north San Jose.

The north San Jose lease is slated for more than 10 years, once the rental term begins in April 2020, according to the SEC filing. Rambus has options to extend the length of the deal.

Rambus also has arranged to expand in the office complex in the deal with its landlord, 237 @ First builder South Bay Development.

“The lease allows for an option to expand, wherein the company has the right of first refusal to rent additional space in the building,” Rambus said in the SEC filing.