New York Steals a Crown From Silicon Valley

New York just knocked the San Francisco Bay Area off its perch as the top market for tech workers, and AI is doing much of the lifting. A CBRE report finds New York now has about 394,000 tech jobs, edging out the Bay Area's roughly 376,000—its first time in the lead in 13 years of the firm's analysis, per CNBC. The shift reflects tech layoffs in California and aggressive hiring by New York's finance sector, especially for AI roles. From 2022 to 2025, the Bay Area dropped 23,900 tech jobs, while New York gained 30,640, Fortune reports.

However, CBRE's broader ranking of markets, based on 13 metrics including talent concentration and wages, has the Bay Area at No. 1, with a score of 82, followed by Seattle (74), Toronto (73), and New York (70), GeekWire reports. Across the US and Canada, AI tech jobs jumped 45% in the past year to 751,000 workers, and nearly one in three US tech job postings now involves AI. The Bay Area continues to dominate in AI-specific roles and AI office leasing, which is also surging in Manhattan, Boston, and Seattle, helping revive office demand despite remote work trends.