One of the technology industry’s longest-running conferences is leaving San Francisco for Phoenix, a setback for a city that has promoted the return of conventions and visitors as evidence of its downtown recovery.

Semicon West, a major gathering for the global semiconductor industry, will make Phoenix its long-term home beginning in 2027, the trade association behind the event announced Thursday.

The conference will hold its final scheduled San Francisco edition from Oct. 13-15 at Moscone Center, before moving to the Phoenix Convention Center for an event next spring. Conferences are also scheduled in Phoenix in 2028 and 2029.

The decision reverses an earlier plan to rotate the conference between the two cities and ends Semicon West’s more than 50-year association with the Bay Area.

Its departure comes as San Francisco seeks to rebuild a convention and tourism industry battered by the pandemic, remote work and the prolonged decline of its downtown business district.

City leaders have pointed to falling crime, returning office workers, new artificial intelligence companies and a stronger convention calendar as signs that San Francisco is gaining momentum. 

But the loss of a prominent technology gathering shows that the city still faces stiff competition from regions where the industries behind those events are rapidly expanding.

Semi, the Milpitas-based association that organizes Semicon West, said Phoenix’s growing semiconductor industry and the success of the conference’s first Arizona edition in 2025 helped drive the move.

“By establishing Phoenix as the long-term home of our flagship North American event, we’re creating greater consistency for attendees while building on the tremendous momentum of Arizona’s rapidly expanding semiconductor ecosystem,” Joe Stockunas, president of Semi Americas, said in a statement.

The organization said moving the conference from fall to spring would also reduce scheduling conflicts with its events in Taiwan, Japan, Europe and India.

Still, the announcement carries economic weight for San Francisco.

Large Moscone Center conferences fill hotel rooms, bring customers to restaurants and support thousands of hospitality jobs. San Francisco expects 38 Moscone events to generate about 674,000 hotel room nights in 2026, according to the city’s tourism bureau.

The city has recently landed or retained several major conferences, including Visa’s annual payments gathering, which is scheduled to remain at Moscone Center through 2030. Events tied to the artificial intelligence industry have also helped replace some corporate and professional meetings that disappeared after 2020.

The first Semicon exhibition was held at the San Mateo County Fairgrounds in 1971, drawing 2,800 attendees and 80 exhibitors. The event later became a fixture at Moscone Center as the Bay Area emerged as the center of the global chip industry.

But semiconductor manufacturing has increasingly shifted to other parts of the United States.

Arizona has attracted more than $205 billion in semiconductor investments and more than 60 industry expansions since 2020, according to the Arizona Commerce Authority. Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co., Intel, Amkor Technology and a growing network of suppliers have announced major projects in the state.

Semicon West’s first Phoenix gathering drew more than 20,000 people and record attendance, according to the company.

Subscribe

There’s more to San Francisco with the Chronicle. Subscribe today for just 25¢.

This article originally published at Longtime Bay Area tech conference is leaving San Francisco after a 50-year run.