The race for AI tenants is popping right into a two-city contest.
San Francisco and New York have each landed a sequence of enormous leases from synthetic intelligence firms this yr, with a number of the greatest gamers increasing their footprints in each markets.
Anthropic is main the cost on each coasts. The AI big signed a 466,000-square-foot full-building lease at AEW Capital Administration’s 330 Hudson Road in July, the most important AI lease in New York Metropolis to date this yr, in keeping with CompStak knowledge. In San Francisco, it inked a 413,000-square-foot full-building lease at 300 Howard Road in February, adopted just a few months later by one other 250,000-square-foot lease at 500 Howard Street.
That offers Anthropic greater than 1.1 million sq. toes of recent house throughout the 2 markets this yr alone, per CompStak. The 300 Howard Road lease had a beginning hire of $87 per sq. foot, per CompStak. The typical beginning hire for AI tenants to date this yr within the mixed San Francisco and Bay Space markets is $77 per sq. foot.
Anthropic’s hire in New York was not disclosed, however the common asking hire for AI tenants to date in 2026 is about $82.83 per sq. foot, per CompStak. However many are paying extra. Tech firms inked 69 leases with rents over $100 per sq. foot because the starting of 2025, per JLL knowledge.
“Tech was drawn to Midtown South as a result of it was cool and cheaper,” mentioned JLL’s Kevin Kelly. “Now, as a consequence of a mix of demand for house and other people being conscious of what Midtown South has to supply, there’s no low cost on what they’re taking down.”
AI tenants in San Francisco have leased extra sq. footage on this yr’s greatest offers. Taken collectively, the 5 largest AI leases in San Francisco and the Bay Space totaled about 1.38 million sq. toes. New York’s 5 largest offers amounted to roughly 1.08 million sq. toes.
Within the largest West Coast offers, OpenAI leased 282,000 square feet at 1800 Owens Road, whereas Sierra AI took 258,000 square feet at 185 Berry Road. Databricks signed for one more 180,000 square feet at 100 Altair Manner within the Bay Space, in keeping with CompStak.
New York’s greatest offers after Anthropic embody Ramp’s 285,000-square-foot extension and enlargement at 28-40 West 23rd Street, Tennr’s 125,000-square-foot lease at 345 Hudson Road and EliseAI’s 109,000-square-foot deal at 401 Fifth Avenue. Legora rounded out the highest 5 with a 98,000-square-foot lease at 11 Madison Avenue, per CompStak.
The numbers provide a snapshot of the competitors between the nation’s two greatest markets for a technology of AI firms which are quickly scaling their workplace footprints. In San Francisco, AI firms have accounted for 30 % of leasing exercise, or roughly 10 million sq. toes, since 2023, in keeping with CBRE knowledge. In Manhattan, AI firms leased 4.1 million sq. toes throughout that interval, per CBRE.
However the Bay Space is much extra reliant on AI to drive workplace demand. AI firms accounted for practically half of all workplace leasing by sq. footage in San Francisco to date in 2026, mentioned CBRE’s Colin Yasukochi.
“Lots of the bigger AI firms in New York are literally headquartered within the San Francisco Bay Space,” he mentioned. “Once they attain the type of scale that they’re in San Francisco … and they should rent throughout the spectrum, however they’re nonetheless centered on hiring the progressive technical expertise, New York has the most important provide.”
AI firms additionally need to be near the purchasers and industries they’re making an attempt to promote to, Yasukochi mentioned. New York’s focus of finance, media and different industries provides firms entry to staff who perceive these companies.
“Having some type of information of different industries, like finance, like media, and simply understanding that, then they’ll construct services from AI that relate extra on to that, versus tech firms constructing it for different tech firms,” he mentioned.
The race isn’t nearly how a lot house AI firms are taking. It’s additionally a few finite pool of extremely specialised staff, mentioned JLL’s Kelly. Neither New York nor San Francisco has sufficient staff with the specialised ability units AI firms are looking for, so firms like Anthropic are increasing in each markets.
“Once they’re it by way of discrete abilities, a variety of these firms … are rising in a number of locations on the similar time as a result of there’s merely not sufficient folks to rent on the price that they need to go for these elite abilities,” Kelly mentioned.
The expertise pipeline is shifting, too. Kelly mentioned that round 2015 and 2016, laptop science graduates from colleges like Michigan, Purdue and Wisconsin had been more likely to go to the Bay Space than New York. That pipeline has since shifted towards New York, and AI firms have taken discover.
“They’re not interested by low-cost hubs. They’re interested by ‘I want the most effective and brightest, and I’m going to scale them up in these core markets the place these ability units are most important,’” Kelly mentioned.
The businesses aren’t essentially leasing just for the employees they already make use of. Kelly mentioned JLL’s evaluation of headcount in opposition to occupied sq. footage suggests that fifty to 60 % of the house AI firms are taking is earmarked for workers they’ve but to rent.
“They’re planning for such a big ramp-up, so these are actually big-time prices they’re taking up,” he mentioned.
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