WeWork has a massive footprint in London. Its bankruptcy could shake up the city’s office market
TikTok’s London office is based out of a WeWork building in Holborn called Aviation House.
WeWork
WeWork, the U.S. office rental startup, filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy, threatening office closures across the U.S. where it has become a major destination for tech firms.
The company’s restructuring may also have implications for its London operations, where it is one of the biggest tenants.
According to CoStar, the commercial real estate data company, the company has 36 offices in London, spanning more than 2.89 million square feet.
The company, which was valued at $47 billion at the height of its rise in 2019, said Monday that the bankruptcy filing is limited to WeWork’s locations in the U.S. and Canada.
But uncertainty remains for WeWork’s operations in London and the international offices.
At least one property group has already looked to end its lease agreement with WeWork in the past week, as the firm’s liquidity position looks more precarious.
Trouble afoot for commercial property in London?
WeWork is a major renter of property in London.
CoStar, citing analysis of WeWork’s websites and CoStar’s own data, said M&G and Nuveen are both landlords for two of the buildings WeWork is currently present in.
The largest single landlord with exposure to WeWork’s financial troubles is Almacantar’s 290,000-square-foot Southbank West in Waterloo, CoStar said.
M&G, Nuveen and Almacantar were not immediately available for comment when contacted by CNBC.
The most exposed London submarket is City Core North, where WeWork occupies 684,000 square feet.
WeWork was not immediately available for comment when contacted by CNBC.
Deepak Tailor, CEO of LatestFreeStuff, a startup that offers customers freebies online, said that he doesn’t know what will happen with the office building that his firm is currently occupying in Tower Bridge.
“We’ve actually got an agreement with them for another seven months,” Tailor, who is based in London, told CNBC.
“We’re a bit locked in. I don’t know where we stand from a legal point of view at the moment … From the comms we’ve received, it looks like they’re trying to carry on as normal,” he added.
Tailor has been at his WeWork building for eight years, he said, and found it accommodating as a space to work from, with the office offering free beers on tap.
Now, he fears those free beers will soon dry up. “I don’t know if I trust them as a brand anymore after this,” Tailor told CNBC.
WeWork has suffered one of the most spectacular corporate collapses in recent history over the past few years.
The company tried and failed to go public five years ago, and has since been heavily affected by the Covid-19 pandemic, which caused further pain as many companies abruptly ended their leases.
The economic slump that followed also caused clients to cease their WeWork memberships.
In an August regulatory filing, WeWork disclosed that bankruptcy could be a concern.
The company has said its spaces remain open and operational, and that it will continue to provide members with its co-working experiences.
Lease forfeited
Helical, the property investment firm, recently revealed it had forfeited its lease to WeWork on six floors at The Bower office development in London.
Helical said this was due to “non-payment of rent for the September quarter.” The firm entered into a short-term license arrangement with WeWork, which has since re-occupied the building.
WeWork is required to pay Helical a fee equivalent for the whole of the September quarter’s rent and service charge due under the terms of its previous contractual arrangements, Helical said.
Helical said it was “working on next steps for the space” and would provide an update its Nov. 22 half-year results.
WeWork is a tenant, rather than a property investment firm in its own right. The company rents properties from commercial real estate firms, and then lets them out to companies at higher prices to pocket a small profit on the difference. Several investors have raised skepticism with the company’s business model.
– CNBC’s Rohan Goswami and Ari Levy contributed to this report
Intel snapped a losing streak of six straight quarterly losses and returned to profitability in the third quarter.
In its first earnings report since the Trump administration acquired a 10% stake in the company, the U.S. chipmaker posted strong revenue, noting robust demand for chips that it expects to continue into 2026.
Client computing revenue, which includes chips for PCs and laptops, grew 5% year over year, benefiting from PC market stabilization and artificial intelligence PC prospects.
CEO Lip-Bu Tan said in a call with analysts Thursday that artificial intelligence “is a strong foundation for sustainable long-term growth as we execute.”
The chip strength and demand were bright spots, but there were areas of concern as well, with the company’s foundry business still needing a big break.
Here are three takeaways from the chipmaker’s Q3 report:
Cash flow
“We significantly improved our cash position and liquidity in Q3, a key focus for me since becoming CEO in March,” Tan said on a call with analysts Thursday.
Intel landed an $8.9 billion investment from the U.S. government in August, along with $2 billion from Softbank, but has not yet received the $5 billion tied to a deal with Nvidia. The company expects that deal to close by the end of Q4.
With all of those transactions completed, plus the Altera sale, Intel will have $35 billion in cash on hand, CFO David Zinser told CNBC.
The U.S. government is the company’s biggest shareholder, and Intel stock is up more than 50% since Aug. 22, when Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick announced the deal.
“Like any shareholder, we have to keep in touch with them,” Zinser said of the U.S. stake. “We don’t tell them how the numbers are going before the quarter. We generally talk to them like Fidelity,” another Intel shareholder.
Intel 3-month stock chart.
Foundry
The firm’s foundry remains a work in progress.
Revenue fell 2% over the year before, and it has yet to land a major customer.
Intel now has two fabs running 18A nodes, which are designed for AI and high-performance computing applications.
“We are making steady progress on Intel 18A,” Tan said of its latest chip technology. “We are on track to bring Panther Lake to market this year.”
Zinser said the more advanced 14A nodes won’t be put in supply until the company has “real firm demand.”
Old stuff still selling
Zinser said the company’s older chipmaking processes, or nodes, have continued to do well, “and that was probably the part that was more unexpected.”
Zinser said the chipmaker met some of the central processing unit (CPU) demand with inventory on hand, but they will be behind in Q1, “probably Q2 and maybe in Q3.”
The supply crunch has been with older Intel 10 and 7 manufacturing technologies.
Many customers are opting for less advanced hardware to refresh their operating systems, demonstrating enterprises aren’t waiting for cutting-edge chips when proven technology gets the job done.
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