사진 확대 The artificial intelligence (AI) craze is making the western United States a new “billionaire manufacturing plant.” The corporate value soared on the back of AI startups such as OpenAI, Anslogic, Safe Super Intelligence, and Anisphere attract the largest investment ever. This is a scene in which the San Francisco Bay area, the San Francisco Bay area, is reorganizing the world’s rich landscape.
According to global consulting firms New World Wells, Henry & Partners, and CNBC on the 10th (local time), the San Francisco Bay Area has overtaken New York as the number one billionaire city due to the concentration of AI funds, talents, and infrastructure investments. The number of billionaires in the San Francisco Bay Area stood at 82 as of 2024, outpacing New York (66), which was the undisputed No. The San Francisco Bay Area is the San Francisco Bay area, which includes the city of San Francisco, Oakland, and San Jose.
The area was considered the city with the highest density of billionaires compared to the population, with one billionaire living per 11,600 people. In the San Francisco Bay Area, the number of billionaires jumped 20% from 68 to 82 in a year, but in New York City, the number of billionaires increased only 10% from 60 to 66.
The rapid rise of millionaires and billionaires in the San Francisco Bay Area has been linked to the AI boom. According to market research firm CB Insights, there are 498 AI unicorn companies with an enterprise value of more than $1 billion (about 1.3 trillion won) worldwide, with their total value reaching $2.7 trillion. Of these, 100 were established after 2023. There are also more than 1,300 AI startups with an enterprise value of more than $100 million. Many of them are nesting in the San Francisco Bay Area.
The difference in wealth growth rates between the San Francisco Bay Area and New York stems from this industrial structure. In the San Francisco Bay Area, wealth comes mostly from ’emerging industries’ such as technology, especially AI. This field is well equipped to create huge wealth in a short period of time, but New York’s wealth has a high proportion of traditional industries such as finance, real estate, and media. These industries show stable growth, but the pace of wealth is relatively slow.
A case in point is former Chief Technology Officer Mira Murati, who left OpenAI in September last year. In February this year, he founded “Sinking Machines Lab” in San Francisco, attracting $2 billion in investment in just five months, raising the corporate value to $12 billion. Anthropic is currently seeking to attract $5 billion in additional investment with a goal of $170 billion in corporate value, and both Dario Amodei founder and six co-founders are likely to become multi-billion dollar asset holders.
Most of this explosive increase in wealth is done by unlisted companies. Unlike in the past dot-com boom, AI companies continue to raise funds from venture capital and sovereign wealth funds and maintain high valuations for a long time without listing. These days, “non-emergency equity transactions” are active in buying and selling stocks even if the company is not listed, so founders or early investors can have considerable cash in their hands through such transactions.
The office market in San Francisco is also reviving thanks to AI. In the fourth quarter of 2024, office space increased for the first time since 2019, and more than half of the newly leased offices were tech companies. Among them, AI companies accounted for 46%.
[Silicon Valley correspondent Wonho-seop]