The AI boom is bringing a wave of startups to San Francisco, and employees are receiving generous benefits in one of the country’s priciest housing markets.
“Going to the office should feel like you’re walking to your living room, so we really, really want people close,” Lee told The Times on Thursday.
Flo Crivello, CEO of Lindy, another AI startup, said he offers his approximately 40 employees a $1,000 rent stipend every month if they live within a 10-minute walk of the company’s office.
“People are so much happier and healthier when they live close to work,” he told The Times. “This makes them stick around for longer, perform better and work longer hours.”
The AI boom has drawn a flood of money and talent to San Francisco, inflating rent in the process. The Bay Area has attracted 70% of AI venture capital funding nationwide since 2019, according to data from Pitchbook.
Tightness in the office market is also seen in the residential sector. Over the past year, apartment prices in San Francisco rose 6%, on average, more than twice the 2.5% increase experienced in New York City and the highest rate in the nation, according to real estate tracker CoStar data cited by The Times. In hot spots like Mission Bay, near OpenAI’s headquarters, rents climbed 13% recently.
Average rent for a San Francisco apartment is now $3,315 a month, just below New York City’s, the nation’s highest at $3,360.
Will Goodman, a principal at Strada Investment Group, which developed the luxury complex where Cluely leased its eight apartments, told The Times that half of the 501 units in the complex were leased within two months of its May opening.
“Honestly, I’ve never seen anything like it before,” he said
