It seems some tech leaders are coming back to San Francisco

The AI boom could boost demand for office space in San Francisco. Brandon Sloter/Getty Images

• Some tech leaders are returning to San Francisco, The Wall Street Journal reported.
• The buzz around AI and a search for fresh talent is helping to lure some execs back to the city. 
• San Francisco’s commercial real estate market is also getting a boost from the AI boom.

It seems like San Francisco is luring some tech bosses back after a pandemic-induced exodus.

Drawn in by the AI boom and a hunt for fresh talent, founders and investors who moved to other cities are starting to return, The Wall Street Journal reported. that

Names include venture capitalist Keith Rabois, fintech startup Brex cofounders Henrique Dubugras and Pedro Franceschi, and Airtable CEO Howie Liu.

Rabois had notably urged founders to relocate to Miami during the pandemic, citing lower taxes and better safety. Now, he plans to spend one week a month in San Francisco and is renovating a house in the city, The Journal reported.

Even Tesla CEO Elon Musk, an outspoken critic of San Francisco’s political landscape, has been spending more time in the city to oversee both X and xAI.

San Francisco’s commercial real estate market is also on the up due to a boom in AI startups. Last summer, property brokers told BI they’d seen a rise in demand for office space after years of lackluster activity.

Some tech companies scaled back their presence in the city during the pandemic, with Meta, PayPal, and Snap all slashing office space.

Meanwhile, San Francisco has grappled with a homelessness problem and shifts in crime patterns. Last summer, storefronts, hotels, and office buildings moved out of the city at such a rate some dubbed it a “doom loop.”

Some commentators think the rise of AI startups combined with return-to-office mandates mean tech companies will take more office space.

OpenAI, for example, recently signed the largest office leasing in San Francisco since 2018, the California Globe reported, by taking almost 500,000 square feet of space in Uber’s Mission Bay headquarters.

OpenAI CEO and cofounder Sam Altman also lives in the city’s Russian Hill neighborhood.