Apollo Global Management is opening its second headquarters in Austin, a move that was hinted at in June but made official by the alternative asset management giant Monday.
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Apollo plans to open the new hub with a focus on innovation and emerging technology and as a testing ground for new product offerings across its asset management and retirement solutions business, Athene.
“Austin lets us build the next generation of Apollo and Athene, including challenger models for parts of our own business, with the talent, technology and business environment already in place,” CEO Marc Rowan said.
The new hub will be led by Eric Needleman and Mike Downing. Needleman is a partner at New York-based Apollo who currently leads its capital markets, structuring and global syndication, and Downing is co-president and chief operating officer of Athene USA and Athene Holdings.
Apollo is already operating out of a short-term office in downtown Austin and hasn’t yet finalized its long-term location, but it plans to sign a lease in the next few months, a spokesperson said in an email Monday.
Apollo announced in March that it was searching for a second headquarters in the Sun Belt, where it expects “most of [its] future growth will take place.” The Financial Times reported in June that Austin narrowly beat out South Florida for the office, but Apollo’s management said at the time the decision wasn’t final.
Apollo has been headquartered in New York since its founding in 1990 and has grown rapidly in the last five years, more than doubling its headcount since 2020. Much of that growth has been powered by its $11B acquisition of Athene in 2021.
The asset management firm chose Austin because of longstanding existing business relationships across Texas and the state's role as a hub for Fortune 500 firms. Texas has become a hub for advanced manufacturing for chips, defense and energy, aligning with Apollo management's investment thesis that there is an ongoing global industrial renaissance.
Apollo has offices around the globe, including a presence in 12 U.S. cities, according to its website. It operates a regional headquarters in West Des Moines, Iowa, and also has locations in Florida and California. The Austin hub will give Apollo access to a new, distinct pool of talent it tapped, the spokesperson said.
Texas broadly became a hub for corporate relocations during the pandemic, and Austin specifically grew into a top destination for tech firms decamping from California. The state saw 200 corporate relocations from 2020 through 2024, according to state data.
Elon Musk’s SpaceX has a massive presence in the Austin area and recently announced a $20B plan to build two semiconductor manufacturing facilities in the region.
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