New York Metro overtook the San Francisco Bay Area as North America’s largest tech workforce by headcount for the first time in the 13-year history of CBRE’s 2026 Tech Talent Assessment Report. New York added 30,640 tech workers between 2022 and 2025, reaching 394,300, while the Bay Area lost 23,900 and fell to 375,730. New York’s lead reflects a technology economy spread across financial services, media, advertising, healthcare and other industries, rather than one concentrated primarily in high-tech companies. The AI talent pool across the U.S. and Canada grew 45% year over year to 751,000 by mid-2026, with AI-related roles accounting for 31% of U.S. tech job openings, up from 11% in mid-2022. The Bay Area still leads in total AI professionals and overall AI hiring concentration, at 26% versus 17% in New York, while New York and Dallas-Fort Worth tie at 20% for the highest concentration of AI talent in financial services. JPMorgan Chase CEO Jamie Dimon said the bank may expand AI hiring, and Bank of America CFO Alastair Borthwick said new AI capabilities had made more than 200,000 employees more productive and contributed to a 59% efficiency ratio. New York’s headcount lead does not displace the Bay Area from the top of CBRE’s broader tech-talent index, which ranks the Bay Area first, followed by Seattle and Toronto, with New York fourth, based on 13 factors including talent concentration, salary levels, education pipelines and R&D investment.