Tech Leaders Returning to Silicon Valley

Many technology company founders and investors who left the Silicon Valley area at the start of the COVID-19 pandemic have begun to return to San Francisco, where funding remains high for tech companies.

Keith Rabois, a venture capitalist who has invested in Airbnb and DoorDash, told the The Wall Street Journal that he moved from San Francisco to Miami in 2020, only to find himself leaving his old job and ending up getting hired by a new employer based in San Francisco. Many other Silicon Valley investors and tech innovators told the Journal similar stories of trying to leave the San Francisco area only to return a few years later.

According to the Journal, startup funding for tech ventures has drastically fallen in several of the country's smaller tech hubs, such as Austin, Texas; and Los Angeles, where startup funding dropped by 27% and 42%, respectively, and in Miami, Florida, venture investment dropped by a staggering 70% just last year, to just $2 billion. San Francisco, by comparison, saw its investment funding drop by just 12%, bringing it down to $63.4 billion last year.

"An ecosystem such as SF's that has been built over the last 50-plus years doesn't just die because of a pandemic for a few years," Mo Koyfman, who founded the venture firm Shine Capital, told the newspaper.

"The reality is that the brainpower is here" in San Francisco, added Max Gazor, who sits on the board of AirTable and is a general partner at the venture firm CRV. "It's especially true for AI, given the light speed at which these companies have innovated."

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