San Francisco's Hayes Valley sits just north of the Mission District and a bit east of Haight-Ashbury. It’s far removed from Mountain View and Cupertino, the heart of Silicon Valley, but it’s quickly becoming one of the hottest areas in the country for tech startups.
As artificial intelligence grows into the next big thing in tech, this small neighborhood is acquiring the nickname “Cerebral Valley” as a growing number of AI workers are spending their days and nights there.
They gather in what are called “hacker houses,” co-living/coworking environments that demand in-person participation and, in a way, take tech startups back to their garage roots. The biggest of the hacker houses is reportedly Genesis House, a 21-bedroom building that was founded in March of 2021 to give workers a place to work and to bond.
The trend was spotlighted earlier this month by Amber Yang, an early-stage investor in Bloomberg Beta, who later implied it was done somewhat in jest. But the Cerebral Valley name appears to be sticking.
ppl in sf are now nicknaming Hayes Valley "Cerebral Valley" because all the AI communities and hacker houses are there
— Amber Yang (@theamberyang) January 9, 2023
AI seems to be the one thing in startup world that demands in-person rn so much so that if you're not in sf, you're at a disadvantage
The surge in AI comes as the same time that there is a glut of skilled tech workers suddenly on the market. Layoffs by Google parent Alphabet, Meta and more could help AI companies thrive, as they re-embrace the startup world.
The growing popularity of AI powerhouses like image generator DALL-E and language tool Chat GPT have only fueled that enthusiasm. And venture capitalists are happily footing the bills. The San Francisco Standard reports more than $6.75 billion has been give to AI companies so far.
The competitive nature of the business, though, is bringing back the grind culture of the early dotcom days. Workers put in long hours, which makes the hacker houses a popular gathering spot, as they are able to largely co-exist with other members of the team.
Hayes Valley might be red-hot with AI startups, but it hasn’t seen the ridiculous inflation in real estate prices Silicon Valley did in its early days (at least not yet). The median sale price in the area is down 10% from a year ago and more than half the price of its peak in September 2020, according to Redfin.
