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On a crisp morning in January 1848, James W. Marshall James W. Marshall spotted a glittering stone beneath his feet along the banks of the American River, where he was constructing a lumber mill east of Sacramento. Biting into the soft metal flint, Marshall changed the course of California—and America—forever.
The Gold Rush sparked an ecosystem of entrepreneurs that sprang up across frontier California and Nevada. Nearly 100,000 Forty-Niners descended upon the Sierra Nevada foothills, creating instant demand for supplies, services, and food.
Sixty miles to the south of San Francisco, the Santa Clara Valley (more generally known today as Silicon Valley) became a crucial piece of the Gold Rush economy. It fed San Francisco's hungry prospectors with agricultural goods while supplying mercury from the New Almaden mine, essential for extracting gold from mineral impurities with any sort of efficiency. The mine became the world's second-largest mercury producer, eventually yielding $2.37 billion worth of quicksilver in today's dollars—more valuable than any California gold mine.
Today, coders and AI researchers have replaced mercury miners in this epicenter of innovation, developing artificial intelligence, quantum computing, clean tech, and next-generation mobility.
The Heart of the AI Revolution
Like its quicksilver deposits, innovation runs through Santa Clara County and its largest city, San Jose. The 1920s and '30s saw the prodigiously fertile region shipping fruits and canned goods internationally. The 1940s brought the digital era with pioneering computing firms. The Space Race of the 1950s and '60s ushered in generations of aerospace innovation—from commercial and military aircraft to spacecraft from every crewed flight program.
This pattern of innovation continues today. “San Jose has always thrived by reinventing itself as the frontier of innovation,” says San Jose Mayor Matt Mahan. “I remember the cusp of the dot-com boom—you could feel the energy as the skyline transformed and companies with world-changing ambitions put down roots here. I feel that same energy today.” The startups that were putting down roots in the late 90s are now mature industry incumbents drawing upon the area’s dense constellation of universities, research institutions, and competitors to fuel the next era of transformation—the AI boom.
San Jose spans 178 square miles, making it America’s 13th-largest city, with outsized access to a diverse, highly-educated population: one third of its residents have a bachelor’s degree or higher, and one fifth have a STEM degree, and 59% of residents speak a language other than English at home.
This demographic mix stems from San Jose’s proximity to over 50 universities and research institutions in the city and its surrounding area that draw experts and students worldwide. Meanwhile, executives and specialists are drawn to the area by the category-leading firms that have been operating since the Space Age—or, in an ouroboros of innovation, chose to incorporate in San Jose to take advantage of the local talent.
“We benefit from a critical mass of engineers, researchers and entrepreneurs,” Mahan says. “In fact, San Jose has more new AI jobs per 100,000 residents than anywhere in the country, [and] residents and companies create more AI patents than any other city in the country.”
If the promise of generative AI is unlocking human potential to let us work better and faster, San Jose’s leadership is putting the technology through its paces. Befitting a city with over 90 venture-backed AI startups that have collectively raised over $5 billion, San Jose is implementing AI initiatives across city government, deploying the tech with transparency and governance controls where it can be most effective. “We have lofty ideas but our approach to implementing them is grounded in the data,” Mahan says. “We’re already using AI to modernize permitting, identify potholes and other street-level issues, speed up bus routes, and empower staff to better serve residents” through language translation for the city’s diverse community.
At the same time, global firms are making big bets locally, with active proposals for more than a gigawatt of new data centers and labs—enough to power roughly 750,000 homes—to support advanced computing. “None of this happened by accident. It’s the product of decades of building a city that welcomes and supports innovative people doing what they love most,” Mahan says.
Building for the Future
A city of the future would hardly be a city without the people that provide the texture to the fabric of life. With 49% of the city’s residents foreign born—primarily from Asia—alongside the South Korean, Italian, and Japanese innovation centers, San Jose offers a holistically global urban experience. For Mahan, a thriving city isn’t just about infrastructure: it’s about vibrancy. “We should measure success by the energy in our city: are small businesses thriving, is downtown alive with people, is San Jose a place people are choosing to move to?” Mahan says. As such, the city is not only focusing on building a variety of new housing options to create mixed-use, walkable neighborhoods that blend live, work, and entertainment, but working to develop events that can support small businesses and continue to attract a global community.
As part of this downtown revitalization strategy, San Jose is about to embark on an unprecedented 2026, hosting marquee events in football, soccer, and college basketball, as well as building the infrastructure to provide world-class amenities to the fans who visit. That plan includes creating special entertainment zones in the city where visitors can grab a beer and take a stroll down “Sharks Way” to catch one of the 13 free community concerts programmed around the sporting events.
Beyond the 2026 events, San Jose offers year-round draws and a civic infrastructure fine-tuned for large-scale meetings and conventions. The city's diverse culinary scene reflects its multicultural population, with exceptional Asian and Latin American dining. And thanks to the region’s Mediterranean climate, visitors can access mountains, hundreds of miles of nearby hiking trails, and Pacific beaches, all within an hour’s drive.
To ensure both the events and the city leave visitors with a great impression, city leadership is backing up the 2026 event schedule with a range of practical improvements from public safety and graffiti cleanup to public art and decorative lighting. Befitting San Jose’s future-focused nature, the city is also exploring AI-powered wayfinding and electric air taxi services, for the 2026 events. Once operational, the air taxis are designed to transport Bay Area residents and visitors between San Jose, San Francisco, and other regional hubs for roughly the cost of a rideshare.
These special events complement San Jose's year-round convention business, anchored by the McEnery Convention Center. With nearly 370,000 square feet of space, high-speed connectivity, and professional streaming capabilities, the facility is built for today's hybrid events—blending digital content with in-person experiences for premier technology conferences while providing the technical, production, and project management staff necessary to produce high-impact events that stun.
From scrubby shoreline to rich farmland to industrial powerhouse, San Jose has been reinventing itself for nearly 200 years. Now it's pioneering a new model of civic innovation. “What we have here can’t be manufactured overnight,” says Mahan. “It’s the product of decades of organic growth, diversity, and collaboration. We’re not just waiting for tech companies to come here—we’re acting like a startup ourselves.”
