BlackRock Plots Atlanta Expansion of 1,000 Employees in New Hub

(Bloomberg) -- BlackRock Inc. is expanding in Atlanta.

The world’s largest asset manager plans to employ 1,000 people in the city by 2024. Its growth in Atlanta will be geared toward technology, with access to top universities including the Georgia Institute of Technology, according to an internal memo sent by Chief Operating Officer Rob Goldstein and viewed by Bloomberg News. The firm currently has 15 employees in the city and about 14,000 globally.

The move to build up BlackRock’s presence in Atlanta is part of its push this year to design technology-focused hubs in cities beyond its New York headquarters. It opened an artificial intelligence lab in Palo Alto in February, and another "innovation hub" in Budapest in July.

Wall Street firms are establishing outposts in the south and west. AllianceBernstein Holding LP is moving its corporate headquarters and 1,050 jobs to Nashville while Deutsche Bank AG has expanded to Jacksonville, Florida.

The news on BlackRock’s expansion was earlier reported by the Wall Street Journal.

BlackRock plans to move its New York headquarters to Hudson Yards on Manhattan’s far west side in 2022.

To contact the reporter on this story: Annie Massa in New York at amassa12@bloomberg.net

To contact the editors responsible for this story: Margaret Collins at mcollins45@bloomberg.net, Alan Mirabella

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