{"id":743718,"date":"2026-07-05T00:58:15","date_gmt":"2026-07-05T00:58:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/743718\/"},"modified":"2026-07-05T00:58:15","modified_gmt":"2026-07-05T00:58:15","slug":"ai-crazed-san-francisco-homebuyers-find-insane-new-currency-to-outbid-rivals","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/743718\/","title":{"rendered":"AI-crazed San Francisco homebuyers find insane new currency to outbid rivals"},"content":{"rendered":"

Silicon Valley\u2019s artificial intelligence boom<\/a> is making home-buying in the notoriously expensive Bay Area real estate market even more miserable.<\/p>\n

In a viral post this week, Michael Hess, a founder at an AI-moderated research platform<\/a>, shared a screenshot of a text message exchange with a realtor.<\/p>\n

Hess in the exchange was notified that his bid on a house in the San Francisco neighborhood of Noe Valley didn\u2019t go through. He seemed shocked.<\/p>\n

\"AA view of homes in North Beach on June 30, 2026, in San Francisco, California. Getty Images<\/p>\n

\u201cWe asked $400k over asking??\u201d he sent, to which the realtor said the buyer paid in equity from OpenAI, <\/a>one of the world\u2019s most valuable AI startups.<\/p>\n

\u201cThat\u2019s not even money,\u201d Hess replied.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe sellers want exposure to AGI,\u201d or artificial general intelligence, the realtor, identified only as Lily, said.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s unclear if the exchange was real, and The California Post reached out to Hess for comment. A couple social media users concluded without evidence it was parody \u2014 but they acknowledged the same exact situation exists in real life.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou joke but this is exactly what happened to me,\u201d wrote venture capitalist Ash Arora with a crying-face emoji.<\/p>\n

The viral moment illustrates Silicon Valley\u2019s massive economic windfall from the AI industry that has also unleashed\u00a0a real estate boom<\/a>\u00a0in the increasingly unaffordable Bay Area. Many in the tech industry are stock-rich but cash poor, but the value of their stocks has opened opportunities.<\/p>\n

Some listings have even openly stated<\/a> they accept AI stocks as a method of payment, as many are eager to cash in on mind-boggling numbers from two AI startups. <\/p>\n

\"OpenAIThe OpenAI logo is displayed on a mobile phone screen. NurPhoto via Getty Images<\/p>\n

OpenAI was valued at $852 billion as of March \u2014 an astronomical increase compared to three years prior, when its valuation was at about $29 billion. Meanwhile,\u00a0Anthropic\u2019s valuation\u00a0<\/a>recently reached a whopping $965 billion. Potential IPOs from the two <\/a>could drive even more value.<\/p>\n

Many home sellers are taking the bet that equity in these AI companies will only increase in value with time.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey trust that this company is a good company and that this company is a company that can deliver based on everything they\u2019ve heard about it,\u201d Ahmed Banafa, a tech expert at San Jose State University, told ABC7<\/a>. <\/p>\n

But there can also be risks, he noted, given stocks can fall in value.<\/p>\n

According to\u00a0Legal Clarity<\/a>, any transactions with stocks must require a purchase agreement \u201cthat spells out the exact securities, the number of shares, and a specific date and time for the valuation.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Silicon Valley\u2019s artificial intelligence boom is making home-buying in the notoriously expensive Bay Area real estate market even…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":743719,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[45],"tags":[182,181,507,7234,1170,1349,5284,923,172,74],"class_list":["post-743718","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-artificial-intelligence","tag-ai","tag-artificial-intelligence","tag-artificialintelligence","tag-northern-california","tag-real-estate","tag-residential-real-estate","tag-san-francisco","tag-stocks","tag-tech","tag-technology"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/743718","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=743718"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/743718\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/743719"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=743718"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=743718"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=743718"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}