New York surpasses San Francisco as US's top tech hub
What's the story
New York City has outpaced San Francisco as the leading hub for tech talent in the US, according to CBRE. The surge is mainly due to rapid growth of artificial intelligence (AI) jobs. In 2025, New York had 394,300 tech workers, an increase of 30,640 jobs or 8.4% from three years ago. Meanwhile, San Francisco's Bay Area saw a decline with only 375,730 workers last year, a decrease of 23,900 jobs or 6% over three years amid Silicon Valley layoffs.
Job market shift
Finance sector in NYC has hired tech talent
The CBRE report highlights that the finance sector in New York has hired a lot of tech talent and AI workers.
Colin Yasukochi, executive director of CBRE's Tech Insights Center in San Francisco, explained this shift by saying there have been cuts in the Bay Area, leading to a contraction of the tech talent workforce.
He added that "the finance sector [in New York] has hired a lot of tech talent and a lot of AI workers."
Market dominance
Tech giants expanding in New York
Notably, major players in the tech sector's AI space such as OpenAI, Anthropic, Google, and Meta have a large presence in New York.
Anthropic has even leased an entire office building in Manhattan's Hudson Square and plans to double its local workforce to over 1,000 by year's end.
OpenAI has also rented 90,000 square feet at the Puck Building in SoHo.
Job market analysis
AI jobs surge in both cities
The CBRE report also notes that since mid-2025, New York and San Francisco have each added over 20,000 AI-specific jobs.
This is part of a larger trend where the number of "AI-skilled" tech workers in the US and Canada jumped 45% year-over-year to 751,000.
Notably, AI-related jobs now make up nearly one-third of all tech-talent job postings in the US.
Leasing trends
AI's impact on office leasing
In terms of office leasing, AI companies accounted for 58% of all leasing in San Francisco in H1 2026.
They have also made up 30% of leasing activity since 2023, totaling about 10 million square feet.
This is a significant shift as the pandemic had pushed many tech workers to remote jobs, but now, AI is driving the market's recovery with its more office-centric culture.