If you’re looking for AI talent, look West.
The Bay Area and Seattle are home to a majority of the country’s AI engineers, according to a report from San Francisco venture capital firm SignalFire.
Silicon Valley has 35% of all AI engineers in the U.S., according to the report.
Seattle is second, with 23%.
New York (10%), Boston (5%), and Los Angeles (4%) follow.
The Valley, of course, has deep AI roots, with longtime tech leaders such as Nvidia, Apple, Alphabet, Meta, Netflix, and so many others. It’s home to about half of all Big Tech engineers across the country, according to the report.
Seattle is second, with a little more than 10% of Big Tech engineers.
Seattle is home to Microsoft and Amazon, which power much of the cloud computing infrastructure that supports AI development.
Meta, Google, and Apple maintain large engineering centers in the Seattle area, employing thousands of top AI researchers and engineers.
But the Bay Area is dominant on startup funding, with nearly 40% of early stage rounds for AI and machine learning startups outside of China coming from the region, the report said.
More broadly beyond just AI, startups based in the Bay raised 26% of all early stage rounds — more than NYC, Boston, and London combined.
Seattle slips when it comes to early stage funding, ranking No. 6, behind Los Angeles, London, Boston, and NYC.
In response to a GeekWire inquiry, SignalFire said Seattle’s strength in AI talent could help it draw more venture capital firms:
“This data shows an opportunity for Seattle to attract more venture capital firms who often look to NYC when opening a second office after SF. It could also work to retain more of its successful founders and big tech execs who could become angel investors, and support local accelerators and co-working spaces to lure in early-stage startups. This could help Seattle round-out the startup ecosystem flywheel to complement its high-quality engineering and AI talent, and tech giants that serve as acquirers as well as management training hubs that spin out founders.”
Seattle often gets criticized for not having enough homegrown money to help fuel the next great tech startups, especially relative to the density of talent.
Most Seattle startups raise investment from firms based outside Washington state.
Some investors don’t see that has a big deal. “Being a net importer of dollars is something we should be proud of,” Leslie Feinzaig, founder and general partner of Seattle-based firm Graham & Walker, said at an event in June.
But more investment firms planting a flag in Seattle certainly wouldn’t hurt the city’s reputation as an elite hub for startup and technology industry leaders. More local venture capital could also help attract outside entrepreneurs — and keep founders from leaving town.
SignalFile’s report used data from its in-house AI platform “Beacon,” which helps find investments and support portfolio companies, along with other third-party data sources on funding and talent metrics.
Previously: Is Seattle an AI hub? City is missing from national conversation about the new tech economy
https://ift.tt/IpzWyv1 September 05, 2024 at 04:08PM GeekWire
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