{"id":109612,"date":"2026-01-23T11:16:07","date_gmt":"2026-01-23T11:16:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/109612\/"},"modified":"2026-01-23T11:16:07","modified_gmt":"2026-01-23T11:16:07","slug":"nyc-and-silicon-alley-will-lead-the-ai-boom","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/109612\/","title":{"rendered":"NYC and Silicon Alley will lead the AI boom"},"content":{"rendered":"

It\u2019s been 30 years since the creation of the so-called Silicon Alley \u2014 the nickname given Flatiron and Union Square where the original tech scene emerged during the \u201990s dot-com boom \u2014 and the investors have never been more bullish about NYC\u2019s prospects.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Despite Mayor Zohran Mamdani in City Hall and predictions that remote work would devastate expensive coastal hubs, veteran VCs and newcomers alike tell me that New York is poised to dominate the next 30 years in tech.<\/p>\n

Much of that is because, New York is better positioned to capitalize on the AI boom than any other city \u2014 due to its variety of industries.<\/p>\n

Julie Samuels, president and CEO of Tech:NYC said, \u201cThe tech sector is incredibly well positioned because every industry that thrives in NYC needs tech to take it to the next level \u2014 fashion, life sciences, finance, healthcare, biotechnology, media, entertainment.\u201d Emmy Park<\/p>\n

\u201cEvery company is a tech company,\u201d Julie Samuels, president and CEO of Tech:NYC, told me. \u201cEvery industry that thrives in NYC needs tech to take it to the next level \u2014 fashion, life sciences, finance, healthcare, biotechnology, media, entertainment.\u201d<\/p>\n

John Borthwick, founder of Betaworks, a venture fund that has backed companies like Tumblr and Giphy, sees AI as New York\u2019s next big opportunity. <\/p>\n

\u201cAI makes it so cheap and easy for anyone to be an entrepreneur,\u201d he said. \u201cNew York can lead here.\u201d<\/p>\n

Bradley Tusk who runs Tusk Strategies said, \u201cthe main job is still just letting New York be a place where people want to be.\u201d Sportsfile via Getty Images<\/p>\n

OpenAI CEO Sam Altman has said that, in the future, someone can build a billion-dollar company single-handedly. That dynamic, Kevin Ryan believes, plays directly to New York\u2019s advantage.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re uniquely able to succeed because we have smart people,\u201d Ryan, who has been called the godfather of NYC tech for co-founding MongoDB, Gilt Group and Zola, told me. \u201cAll you need is a computer and smart people \u2026 and now there are all kinds of big firms (like Thrive) that can compete with Silicon Valley\u2019s established players and fund these ideas.\u201d<\/p>\n

It\u2019s a remarkable reversal for a city that seemed poised to lose a significant portion of its workforce during the pandemic, particularly as remote work took hold. Instead, New York is now outpacing would-be rivals like Miami.<\/p>\n

Last quarter, New York pulled in 10 times<\/a> the venture capital funding of Miami, Ryan noted. <\/p>\n

Ben Lerer tells me many startups he invests in are now looking to lease longterm office space in the city. Penske Media via Getty Images<\/p>\n

The shift shows how major Silicon Valley firms have committed to the city. \u201cFifteen years ago a16z didn\u2019t invest [in New York] and now they have 100 people here\u2026 every big firm has to be here,\u201d Ryan told me.<\/p>\n

Other supposed hotspots are also cooling, he notes. \u201cApartment prices are down 20% in Austin but they\u2019re up here,\u201d Ryan enthused. \u201cWhat does that tell you? People want to be here.\u201d Since 2022, the average price of rent in Austin has fallen<\/a> 17.1%<\/p>\n

VCs are clear that the Bay Area and Los Angeles aren\u2019t directly comparable to NYC, since their vast geography allows them to dominate sectors like energy and defense tech that require physical infrastructure. New York\u2019s edge, they argue, is in the density of industries that intersect with technology.<\/p>\n

Some VCs dismiss Zohran Mamdani\u2019s presence at Gracie Mansion, saying it will have no impact on the city but others worry it could deter innovation. Erik Pendzich\/Shutterstock<\/p>\n

But the optimism comes with a caveat: Whether Mayor Zohran Mamdani\u2019s progressive politics will chill the ecosystem remains an open question \u2014 one with potentially trillion-dollar stakes, if California\u2019s proposed wealth tax and the resulting exodus of founders is any indication.<\/p>\n

Bradley Tusk, an early Uber investor and political strategist, argues that what determines whether talent stays or finally takes remote work seriously isn\u2019t tax policy or housing regulation, but quality of life.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

This story is part of NYNext<\/a>, an indispensable insider insight into the innovations, moonshots and political chess moves that matter most to NYC\u2019s power players (and those who aspire to be).<\/p>\n

\u201cMaking the city a place where people want to be will mean saying no to the orthodoxy of the far left which holds that you can\u2019t enforce quality of life crimes or hold people accountable for their actions because it is somehow racist,\u201d he says. \u201cIf Mamdani kowtows to that ideology, we\u2019re in trouble. If he holds firm on public safety, we should be okay.\u201d<\/p>\n

From a city management perspective, Tusk added, \u201cthe main job is still just letting New York be a place where people want to be. If you do that and you make the effort to ensure these industries feel welcome, the rest will take care of itself.\u201d<\/p>\n

Some investors, like Ben Lerer, managing partner at Lerer Hippeau, dismiss the concern entirely. He told me, \u201cNew York\u2019s New York, and the city\u2019s most serious and talented business people will never leave it behind.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"It\u2019s been 30 years since the creation of the so-called Silicon Alley \u2014 the nickname given Flatiron and…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":109613,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[66,9,56,63,65,64,3957,1601,5586],"class_list":["post-109612","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-new-york-city","tag-artificial-intelligence","tag-new-york","tag-ny","tag-nyc","tag-nyc-headlines","tag-nyc-news","tag-nynext","tag-tech","tag-venture-capital"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/109612","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=109612"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/109612\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/109613"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=109612"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=109612"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=109612"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}