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Beyond the Valley

Ludwig Siegele: US technology editor, The Economist, SAN FRANCISCO

The technology industry’s centre of gravity is on the move

Where did everyone go?

SILICON VALLEY has always been more of a mindset than a place. Its defining feature is
a willingness to make high-risk investments in promising but unproven technologies. As
it has cycled through technologies—from personal computers and the internet to
smartphone apps and cloud computing—its bearings have shifted. Pushed by the
pandemic, it is on the move again, in several respects.

Start with the real world. Silicon Valley’s ground zero used to be Palo Alto, the city
where Stanford University is located, and at one end of Sand Hill Road, the preferred
location of its leading venture-capital (VC) firms. But in recent years its geographic
centre has moved north, to San Francisco, where most unicorns (startups worth more
than $1bn) are based. Now that covid-19 has turned that city into something of a ghost
town, Silicon Valley is spreading out in different directions.

For a time it was easier to find leading VC s in bars in Napa Valley, a wine region to the
north, than in San Francisco (but wildfires have since driven them elsewhere). Tech