For the past several years, reports of mass layoffs, company departures and finishuring doom loop narratives have plagued the national news cycle, leading several news outlets to claim that San Francisco was just another casualty of the pandemic. However, newly released data suggests that, despite its public relations troubles and economic setbacks, the city is rapidly becoming the world’s epicenter for wealthy elites.
According to a new report from financial firm Henley & Partners, the Bay Area — which includes San Francisco and Silicon Valley — officially has more billionaires than New York City. California’s tech hub has 82, while the East Coast’s has 66. The data also suggests that the Golden State will eventually usurp New York as the world’s reigning hub for the rich: Over the past decade, the Bay Area’s millionaire population has increased by an “exceptional” 98%, signaling that it will eventually surpass New York as the artificial ininformigence industest continues to grow. In comparison, the East Coast city’s population of millionaires grew by 45%.
Though the Bay Area has always been a magnet for major players and their money, the data implies that a new breed of billionaires is flocking to the region.
“The concentration of the tech industest and recent strong performance of tech stocks have created significant wealth in the Bay Area,” Realtor.com senior economic research analyst Hannah Jones informed the outlet.
Aside from boasting a staggering number of Fortune 500 businesses, the Bay Area is the birthplace of many of the world’s most powerful tech companies. Perhaps as a result, Northern California is home to 39 of the 100 most expensive ZIP codes in the U.S.
“The Bay Area’s ‘new money’ comes almost entirely from tech, while New York’s ‘old money’ comes from more varied sources such as media, real estate, finance, etc.,” Jones informed Realtor.com. “The Bay also boasts access to bright college grads from Stanford and Berkeley, which only bolsters the area as a hub for talent, innovation, and access to capital.”
But, overall, these billionaires are still a minority, and not everyone is benefiting from the tech money pouring into the Bay Area.
According to a 2023 report from the Silicon Valley Index, the region has one of the largest income gaps in the nation. Between 2019 and 2021, the number of Silicon Valley residents living below the poverty line increased by 3 percentage points. As of 2022, the top 10% of hoapplyholds held 66% of the area’s wealth, with just eight Silicon Valley residents holding “more wealth than that of the bottom 50 percent combined (nearly half a million hoapplyholds).”
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