An executive who helped guide the real estate expansion of one of the San Francisco Bay Area’s fastest-growing artificial intelligence startups has taken a new job at real estate services firm Cushman & Wakefield.
During his six years as senior director of global real estate at the software firm Databricks, Grant Holder oversaw the tech firm’s real estate growth from 14 properties in 2019 to more than 40 in 2025. His recent move to one of the world’s largest real estate services firms illustrates a growing recognition among real estate and tech players that the two industries depend on one another.
Holder announced his departure on LinkedIn a few months after the San Francisco-based firm, which assists companies with data analytics and machine learning, announced last July that it had inked a sprawling new lease in Sunnyvale, California, in order to be closer to Silicon Valley customers such as Adobe, Cisco and Nvidia.
In late 2025, Holder joined Cushman & Wakefield as an executive account director for the West Region based in the Bay Area.
“I’ll be partnering across our client services, operations, market and strategy teams to strengthen execution, deepen relationships and help our clients succeed in dynamic and high-growth environments,” Holder wrote on LinkedIn recently about the new job.
Like other big real estate players, Cushman is aiming to better understand and anticipate the needs of AI companies as the industry reshapes the commercial real estate landscape not just in the Bay Area but in markets across the country.
AI literacy
Brokerages are also pushing for the wider adoption of AI, as companies that depend on the constant analysis of data, leading them to naturally push for better ways to use AI tools that can serve their clients.
“The teams making progress tend to focus first on AI literacy — giving people enough familiarity and confidence to spot opportunities in their own work,” he wrote in a post recently.
On the AI side, big players are hiring real estate experts to coordinate and advise on the firms’ rapid office expansions. AI giant Anthropic recently leased an entire 25-story building in downtown San Francisco on a stretch the landlords have taken to calling “AI Alley.” The company is currently looking to hire for several real estate roles on its “growing workplace and real estate team” as it continues to expand.
Holder has been straddling the worlds of real estate and tech for some years now. This is his second stint at Cushman. He worked in positions related to IFM — or Integrated Facilities Management — from 2016 to 2019, according to LinkedIn. He moved to the United States in 2014 from the United Kingdom.
The San Francisco Bay Area, as the tech capital, is at a turning point, as AI startups converge on the city and big players vie to achieve so-called artificial general intelligence. That ambition is driving a real estate recovery in the Bay Area following a slump induced by COVID-19.
Newmark recently hired a pair of brokers with strong tech credentials to work in its San Francisco office: Jenny Haeg and Nathan Zoucha. The pair joined from commercial real estate services firm CBRE, where they landed following that firm’s acquisition of Custom Spaces, a tech-focused boutique brokerage Haeg started back in 2011 to advise startups on their real estate strategy.
“Artificial intelligence is reshaping the global economy, and the companies at the forefront of that transformation require a partner who understands how to navigate rapid scale, global expansion and cultural continuity,” said Newmark Chief Executive Barry Gosin in a previous statement touting the hiring of the pair.
Moves have also gone the other way. AI infrastructure company Crusoe last year hired veteran San Francisco real estate executive Matt Field from TMG Partners as its chief real estate officer.