If one asked the question of which location in the US the semiconductor industry has the highest footprint in, the answer would definitely be the Bay Area (maybe California, to include San Diego, etc).
But if you ask the question of which sectors the Bay Area has the largest investment and footprint in, then semiconductors would (unfortunately) be only a small part of that. That uncomfortable truth (which is exactly what I'm trying to point out in the above comment) is that market valuations today seem to be driven by the things built on top (in particular, the "data economy" and the effectiveness of personalization-driven consumption increases), rather than (for eg.) the semiconductor engg which is crucial to build those platforms.
An analogue of this is when the Ford CEO speculated in 2018 to the effect that it might be more profitable to sell customer data derived by selling cars, than from selling cars in the first place.
But if you ask the question of which sectors the Bay Area has the largest investment and footprint in, then semiconductors would (unfortunately) be only a small part of that. That uncomfortable truth (which is exactly what I'm trying to point out in the above comment) is that market valuations today seem to be driven by the things built on top (in particular, the "data economy" and the effectiveness of personalization-driven consumption increases), rather than (for eg.) the semiconductor engg which is crucial to build those platforms.
An analogue of this is when the Ford CEO speculated in 2018 to the effect that it might be more profitable to sell customer data derived by selling cars, than from selling cars in the first place.