>Contrary to the prevailing perception of business dysfunction and exodus of people since the start of Covid-19 pandemic, the San Francisco Bay area accounts for 78% of the market capitalization of all publicly-traded companies in California, up from 70% five years ago.
In essence, tech is fueling California more so than anything else, from what it seems. The growth is almost entirely due to tech industry wins.
It'll be interesting to see what it is like 12-18 months from now, because the headwinds in tech are just starting to roll in full force before these statistics were finalized. California may see a bit of a down round next year.
I will say though, despite a very lopsided and sometimes actively regressive tax structure and real estate problems in California, it does seem that this is still one of the best places in the world to grow a technology business. Non SV VCs never materialized with the strength the Silicon Valley VCs still command.
I think Oregon and Washington are also seeing a pretty strong outgrowth from this, but at a much smaller scale.
I feel like most of Texas tech scene wins have come from companies want to take advantage of the tax structure, and not from structural growth afforded to the region by lush VCs and risk taking entrepreneurs. Doesn't mean they don't exist (they really exist everywhere, see Mailchimp for instance) but it just isn't the same ballpark.
It seems Texas has mostly only attracted well established companies looking to take advantage of structural tax advantages rather than growth opportunities.
Of course, you may ask, why am I choosing to single out Texas? Because they made very public statements about coming after and luring in California businesses, especially tech businesses. Its clear that they didn't really put a big dent in this.