New York City Overtakes San Francisco in Tech Talent

New York City has now claimed the title of the largest tech talent hub in the United States, surpassing San Francisco, and the surge in artificial intelligence is a major driver of this change, based on recent findings.

As of 2025, the New York metro area boasted 394,300 tech workers—this represents an increase of 30,640 jobs, or 8.4%, over the past three years, according to research from CBRE.

In contrast, the San Francisco Bay Area had only 375,730 tech workers last year, which is a drop of 23,900 jobs, or 6%. This decline is largely attributed to significant layoffs impacting Silicon Valley.

Colin Yasukochi, the executive director of CBRE’s Tech Insights Center, discussed this trend, explaining, “The situation in the Bay Area is one of reductions in workforce size while the finance sector in New York has increasingly recruited tech talent, especially in AI.”

This shift marks the first occasion in 13 years of CBRE’s “Scoring Tech Talent” report that New York’s tech sector—often referred to as “Silicon Alley”—has outnumbered San Francisco’s in terms of workforce size.

Major players in the AI field, like OpenAI, Anthropic, Google, and Meta, have established considerable office presences in New York.

Notably, Anthropic has leased an entire building in Manhattan’s Hudson Square and aims to double its workforce to over 1,000 employees by year-end.

Similarly, OpenAI has occupied 90,000 square feet in the Puck Building in SoHo. The company also published an economic report in June 2025 indicating that New York City might become a significant hub in the Intelligence Age.

Since mid-2025, New York has added more than 20,000 jobs related to AI, while San Francisco, despite its overall tech job losses, also saw an increase in positions in this field.

Other cities like Philadelphia, Washington, D.C., Atlanta, Chicago, and Dallas-Fort Worth have also shown significant increases in their AI workforces.

Yasukochi commented, “It’s clear that AI is transforming the tech industry and fueling job growth overall. The growth in AI employment across the U.S. has vastly outpaced the general growth in tech jobs, which grew by just 1.8% last year as some non-AI roles were reduced.”

While San Francisco remains higher in CBRE’s overall tech talent ranking—considering aspects like talent concentration and investment in research and development—with it being first followed by Seattle and Toronto, New York is currently in fourth place.

Overall, the number of tech workers skilled in AI in both the U.S. and Canada rose by 45% year-over-year, reaching 751,000, according to CBRE.

Data scientists are leading this growth in AI jobs, along with increases in roles for computer and information systems managers and technology and engineering positions.

Interestingly, the rise in high-earning tech professionals might be influencing rental prices in New York City. The average monthly rent in Manhattan hit $3,653 by the end of 2025—an 8% increase from three years prior and the highest among all markets tracked by CBRE.

Last month, rental prices in Manhattan soared to an unprecedented average of $6,655, as previously reported.

Conversely, San Francisco’s average monthly rent was $3,196 as of the fourth quarter of 2025, reflecting a 4.7% uptick from 2022.

Nationwide, jobs related to AI made up 31% of all job postings in the tech sector by June 2026, a significant rise from just 11% in mid-2022.

In San Francisco, AI companies contributed to 30% of all office leasing activities since 2023.