🚀📉📉📉📉💫 This week in Bay Area business: tumbling stocks; soaring tarrifs; delayed IPOs and a sense of unease

As the dust from Donald Trump’s “reciprocal” tariffs billows across financial markets there is much to consider. 

The impacts on Bay Area businesses, families and individuals will surely be felt far into the future.

Locally, the IPO outlook has clouded. San Francisco fintech Chime has announced a stay on its plans to go public, with other firms no doubt considering their positions. 

The real estate market is likely one area of the local economy that will feel the pinch of any IPO paucity. 

With many more people and businesses having to readjust plans as the full magnitude of Trump’s tariffs are digested.

Elsewhere we have news of Steph Curry versus the carpenters, X Corp suing former Twitter employees and an editor moving on. 

All this and more in another week in Bay Area business.

Tariff jitters wipe out over a trillion dollars of value in the Bay Area. These stocks were hit hardest by Owen Thomas

The stock market posted steep losses on Thursday and Friday as investors reacted to details of the Trump administration's tariff plan — with trillions in value wiped out at publicly traded companies.

Here's the full story.

Chime and other tech firms delay IPO amid stock market plunge by William Hicks

Chime is reportedly delaying plans to go public as a result of the ongoing mass sell off in stocks caused by tariffs imposed by the Trump administration, according to the Wall Street Journal.

Now the company, along with a growing number of other tech firms from around the world are reconsidering those plans.

Read the full story.

United Airlines CEO makes bold bet on SFO amid tariff turmoil by Mark Calvey

United Airlines CEO Scott Kirby visited San Francisco International Airport for a company event touting the carrier’s growth in routes, passengers and employment at the airport it dominates.

"International tourism is doing great across the board, including here in San Francisco,” Kirby told the Business Times before taking the stage at the event.

Here’s the story.

Bay Area luxury home sales surged over 80% in March, but market faces new challenges by Ted Andersen

Inventory and home sales are rising in San Francisco as the spring selling season comes into full view, but monumental changes emanating from the nation's capital stand to disrupt recent momentum.

Arrian Binnings is a founding member of Christie's International Real Estate Sereno | San Francisco | Marin | Wine Country. He says tariffs will undoubtedly send ripple effects through the broader forces shaping real estate.

Read the full story.

Warriors legend cancels new HQ project by Doug Sams

Less than a year after Warriors superstar Steph Curry placed a big bet on transforming a roughly 50-year-old Dogpatch building into the new headquarters for his off-court business ventures, his business team has scrapped the project.

Read the full story.

San Francisco has a plan to add 36,200 new homes by Sarah Klearman

San Francisco’s Planning Department on Thursday unveiled its plan to make room for 36,200 new homes in the city, most of them in a traditionally planning-resistant part of town.

Here’s the full story. 

After trying to sell, Alameda County seeks tenant for Oakland's Arena Center by Hannah Kanik

After trying to sell a trio of office buildings near the Oakland Coliseum for $40 million back in 2023, Alameda County is now looking to lease them. 

Read the full story.

The Week in Real Estate

• German landlord seeks to offload San Francisco's 505 Montgomery St. after two decades

• Mecah Ventures plans downtown San Mateo tower as city sees influx of new housing

• The Week in AI

• Prize money: What’s the future of S.F.'s Market Street?

• Muni looks to develop bus yards, parking lots for housing

• IQHQ sees demand shift toward tech, professional services, at its $1 billion Elco Yards project

• Developer Maximus defaults on loan backed by Tiburon apartment complex

• GSA wants to offload massive Richmond office building in latest federal cost cuts

• Livermore to rezone business park for up to 500 homes

• Clean energy startup Pacific Fusion eyes two Bay Area cities for large research facility

Editor's Notebook: It's time for me to close this door and open others by James Gardner

After 30 years at the heart of the Bay Area business scene our editor-in-chief, James Gardner, has retired. From boom to bust, and bust to boom, Jim has been a pillar of journalistic integrity, prescient headlines, incisive edits and cutting one-liners. Follow along for what’s next. Nice one boss. 

Here’s the farewell column.

Executive profile: SF Railyards designer Kristen Hall is bullish on S.F.'s urban future by Sarah Klearman

Over the last decade Kristen Hall of Kristen Hall City Design has helped design some of the most important developments in San Francisco – from Mission Rock to the Railyards – and there’s more to come.

Read the full profile.

Clucking hell? East Bay FDA site testing for bird flu reportedly gutted in Trump, RFK Jr. cuts by Ron Leuty

An East Bay food testing lab, which plays a key role in spotting the ongoing bird flu outbreak, reportedly was shuttered in sweeping cuts by President Donald Trump and Health and Human Services chief Robert F. Kennedy Jr.

Here’s the full story. 

X Corp. is suing former Twitter employees over hundreds of dollars by William Hicks

The richest man in the world may have bought Twitter for $44 billion in 2022, but his newly formed company is still scraping over hundreds of dollars in arbitration fees stemming from the initial mass layoffs.

Read the full story.

A16z wants a piece of TikTok by Sara Bloomberg

Andreessen Horowitz is reportedly trying to get a piece of TikTok by joining a high-profile group of investors who are making a bid for the social media app's U.S. operations ahead of a looming deadline to avoid a total ban.

Here's the full story.

Intersect 2025: AI-Health Care Symposium

The AI-Health Care Intersect Symposium brings together the clinicians, researchers, and industry leaders making Northern California the global hub for innovation in AI and health care.

Join us for a keynote from C3 AI chairman and CEO Thomas M. Siebel.

With further panels featuring Jo Varshney and Ali Madani, and leaders at MarinHealth, Sutter Health, Zuckerberg San Francisco General Hospital and Trauma Center and Hill Physicians Medical Group.

Get your tickets here for the April 10 event.

ICYMI here’s what else you need to know

• Trump cuts hit S.F. again, closing downtown HHS office and axing 300 workers

• Bay Area drug veteran heads New Zealand company's oral ketamine spinoff targeting depression

• Sterling Bank gets a new owner. Are more deals to come?

• United Airlines brings new international routes to SFO

• Struggling Sangamo's brain-penetrating drug delivery tech attracts Eli Lilly in potential $1.4 billion pact

• Former Tesla CTO's startup opens battery R&D facility in San Francisco

• Lawsuit claims Amyris' downfall linked to CEO's risky deals and silencing of dissenting voices

• Robinhood wants to be your private banker. Believe it or not

• James Beard finalists announced with leaner list of Bay Area nominees

• How another firm's FDA approval could mean a big win for Denali Therapeutics

• Bay Area rents hit levels that could make recruiting that much harder

Moonshots and Doom Loops 🚀🌁📈➰💫

This weekly Bay Area business  round-up is written by Simon Campbell, special projects editor at the San Francisco Business Times.

Reach out with news tips, questions or comments: scampbell@bizjournals.com.

Stay safe out there.