USA: Silicon Valley regains its luster thanks to artificial intelligence
Hibapress
Investors and managers of technology companies who left Silicon Valley and San Francisco in the wake of the Covid-19 pandemic and against a backdrop of an increase in the cost of living, are now returning there thanks to the boom in “artificial intelligence,” wrote the Wall Street Journal on Monday.
During the pandemic, many investors and executive directors left Silicon Valley to take up residence in other American cities, notes the daily, noting that these businessmen criticized the “dysfunctional governance” of San Francisco and its cost of high life.
The author of the article says that tech company founders have touted their success in fundraising outside the San Francisco Bay Area and encouraged their employees to embrace remote work.
Four years later, this bet has not yielded the expected results, notes the publication, noting that San Francisco is once again living at the pace of a “technological renaissance”.
“Entrepreneurs and investors are returning in droves to the city that is experiencing an artificial intelligence boom,” the paper added, noting that Silicon Valley leaders are now getting involved in local politics in San Francisco in an effort to “making the city safer for families and businesses”.
The Wall Street Journal reports that San Francisco has largely overcome the startup funding crisis, recalling that investments in Bay Area startups fell 12% to just $63.4 billion in 2013.
In contrast, financing volumes in Austin (Texas) and Los Angeles, two technology hubs, fell by 27% and 42%, respectively. In Miami, venture capital investments plunged 70 percent to just $2 billion last year.
“An ecosystem like San Francisco’s, built over the last 50 years, cannot be wiped out by a pandemic for a few years,” said Mo Koyfman, founder of the venture capital firm. Shine Capital, cited by the daily.
He said renowned universities like Stanford are pushing leading venture capital firms to maintain a presence in the San Francisco Bay Area.
For the newspaper, founders of companies large and small, across the tech industry, are returning to San Francisco despite the city’s cloudier weather and its long-standing struggles with homelessness and drug overdoses.
