Despite years of hand-wringing about costs and efforts to build “the next Silicon Valley” elsewhere, Silicon Valley continues its reign as the world’s pre-eminent startup ecosystem. A much discussed flight of tech workers during the COVID-19 pandemic is not reflected in the numbers. In 2022, the number of residents employed in tech in the region actually rose from 25% to 29%, according to the 2022 Silicon Valley Index. Silicon Valley remained the top ecosystem for venture investing, with $105 billion in capital flowing to the area’s startups in 2021, double the 2020 total. Thanks to Stanford University and the region’s other top educational institutions, the ecosystem is well supplied with fresh talent.

Silicon Valley also continues to offer some of the world’s best networking opportunities and hosts a huge array of startup-focused gatherings and events, including TECHSPO Silicon Valley, Palo Alto founders meetup 106 Miles, and Founders Summit 2022. Venture Capital World Summit will be held in July 2022. The Women of Silicon Valley conference is set to bring together more than 2,700 tech industry professionals in June, and BIOMEDevice Silicon Valley 2022 will gather Life Sciences innovators in November. TiE Silicon Valley is organizing TiEcon 2022 for 50,000 global attendees in May.

Silicon Valley produces a steady stream of huge funding deals. Recent rounds include online learning platform Course Hero’s $380 million Series C in December 2021, customer experience assurance platform $350 million private equity round in January 2022, and Web3 startup Aptos’ $200 million seed round in March 2022.