SF wasn’t chosen by the tech industry. South Bay was. Most big Tech firms’ HQs are outside the city itself, precisely because of lower real estate costs. The m

SF wasn’t chosen by the tech industry. South Bay was. Most big Tech firms’ HQs are outside the city itself, precisely because of lower real estate costs. The move to SF has been much more recent and mainly fueled by the desire of younger workers to live/work in more densely populated areas. And then most startups started basing out of SF proper to be closer to these workers (and appear “cool”) so now you have all the big startup successes based in the city proper.