According to Shaun Richards, Platform45 Founder and CEO,

"Technology is redefining the global landscape of innovation by elevating traditional tech hubs and enabling new ones to emerge. As African cities like Cape Town, Johannesburg, and Nairobi begin to mirror Silicon Valley, technology acts as the ultimate connector, shifting the balance of influence and creating opportunities for new centres of innovation.

This ongoing transformation underscores how technology continually reshapes what it means to be a major player on the global stage. Ultimately, the world is a big place, amplified by technology and subsequently made accessible by it."

Currently, the Big 3 tech hubs in the world, when ranked by number of tech millionaires as at June 2024 include:

• The Bay Area (which includes Silicon Valley and San Francisco) with 265,000 tech millionaires and 60 tech billionaires. Tech giants Apple, Nvidia, Intel, Alphabet, Netflix and Meta are all based in the Bay Area.
• Greater Seattle with 36,200 tech millionaires and 9 tech billionaires. Microsoft and Amazon are both based in Greater Seattle, which includes the city of Seattle, as well as Bellevue, Kirkland, Redmond, and Mercer Island.
• Shenzhen (the base city for Tencent, Huawei, ZTE and BYD) with 32,500 tech millionaires and 18 tech billionaires.

‍Four cities to watch:

‍Despite the ongoing dominance of the Big 3 tech hubs, the following cities could potentially rival them in the future.

These four cities all share the following characteristics:

• All are “tech-heavy cities”, with the tech sector making up over 50% of total millionaires living in all of these cities. 
• All have fast growing millionaire and billionaire populations.
• All are popular locations for tech startups.

‍Austin: 20,800 tech millionaires & 7 tech billionaires

‍With its booming tech sector, Austin has been dubbed “Silicon Hills”. Several major tech companies have moved their headquarters to the city over the past decade, most notably Tesla and Oracle. Austin’s top-end residential market has also been growing rapidly, with the low state taxes in Texas making the city especially appealing.

‍Hangzhou: 18,600 tech millionaires & 6 tech billionaires

‍Widely regarded as one of the more scenic cities in China, Hangzhou is known for its architecture and gardens. This has made it a popular home base for many of China’s wealthiest families, and a growing magnet for tech entrepreneurs. Media and tech giant Alibaba is based there, along with Ant Group and NetEase.

‍Taipei City: 16,500 tech millionaires & 10 tech billionaires

‍One of the world’s leading semiconductor & AI hubs and the base city for computer giants Asus and Acer. Tech giant TSMC, which is Asia’s largest company by market cap, is also located relatively close to Taipei, in nearby Hsinchu. 

‍Kyoto: 14,800 tech millionaires & 5 tech billionaires

‍The historical city of Kyoto is known for its beautiful gardens and scenery. It is the base city for Nintendo, the global pioneer in video gaming through ground breaking games such as Donkey Kong and Super Mario which it launched in the 1980s. Other notable tech companies based in the city include Kyocera, Rohm, Omron, Intelligent Systems, Tose and Screen Holdings.

‍Spotlight on Africa:

‍According to the Africa Wealth Report 2024, Africa’s millionaire population is set to rise by 65% in the next decade, fuelled by strong growth in key sectors such as fintech, software development and green tech.

The following cities are expected to lead Africa’s tech revolution over this period:

• Cape Town: The leading light in Africa’s fintech space, Cape Town is currently benefiting from the inward migration of large numbers of tech entrepreneurs from other parts of Africa. Notable tech companies based in the city include Yoco and Takealot.com. 
• Johannesburg: Johannesburg is the base city for the bulk of the companies listed in the JSE Top 40 and is especially strong when it comes to IT infrastructure, tech support and software development. The business nodes of Sandton and Rosebank are particularly popular base locations for tech startups in Johannesburg.
• Nairobi: East Africa’s fintech engine room, Nairobi accounts for a high 48% of Kenya’s total wealth and over 60% of the country’s millionaires. Its dominance in the East Africa region also makes it the perfect base to operate in fast growing emerging markets such as Rwanda, Uganda and Tanzania.
• Ebene Cybercity: Thanks to its thriving financial services sector, strong tech infrastructure, competitive tax rates, and most critically its good safety & security when compared to its neighbors, Mauritius is perfectly positioned to become Africa’s next big tech hub. The lack of capital gains tax on the island makes it especially appealing for tech entrepreneurs, especially those in the fintech and crypto space.

‍Other contenders include:

• Stockholm: “Europe’s Silicon Valley” and the base city for tech giant Ericsson, aswell as Spotify and Mojang Studios. 
• Bengaluru: One of the fastest growing cities in the world for millionaires, Bengaluru is known as the “Garden City” and the “Silicon Valley of India”. It has a booming tech sector and is the base city for global tech giants Infosys and Wipro.
• Phoenix: GoDaddy, Microchip Technologies, Avnet, Insight Enterprises and Onsemi are all based in the Greater Phoenix Metro, which includes the fast-growing millionaire hotspots of Scottsdale and Paradise Valley. Intel and TSMC also have a strong & growing presence in the metro.
• Tel Aviv: The biggest tech hub in the Middle East and the founder city for several well-known tech companies, including Waze, Wix, Check Point and Monday.com. Global tech giants Intel, IBM, Cisco, Microsoft and HP all have a big presence in the city via acquisitions they have made over the years. 
• Cambridge: The UK’s fastest growing tech hub, Cambridge is the base city for Arm Holdings, which is a leading light in Europe’s semiconductor and AI space. There are also a large number of unicorn startups based in the area which is now commonly known as ‘Silicon Fen’ or the ‘Cambridge Cluster’.

‍All figures from New World Wealth.

Notes: 

• For our purposes the “tech sector” includes: software development, computers, semiconductors, mobile phones, telecoms, fintech, biotech, green tech, video games, tech support, online retailers, automotive, electronics, automation and AI. 
• “Tech millionaires” refer to individuals with liquid investable wealth of USD 1 million or more, who made their money through the tech sector. 
• “Tech-heavy cities” refer to cities that are heavily dominated by the tech sector. 
• All our millionaire & billionaire figures are for June 2024.
• Millionaire figures rounded to the nearest 100.

‍About Platform45:

‍Platform45 is the software developer behind ground breaking software applications such as Howler, Kena and Float.

Established in 2008, Platform45's commitment lies in fostering long-term partnerships, accompanying our clients through their entire business journey. 

Specialising in diverse industries, Platform45 has got the tools and knowledge to make any application a commercial success from viability to scalability.

With offices in Johannesburg, Cape Town and London, Platform45 continues to unveil cutting-edge solutions for startups and leading companies around the world.

‍About New World Wealth:

‍New World Wealth was established in 2013 and has been tracking the movements and spending habits of the world’s wealthiest people for over a decade. The firm has an impressive track record in providing robust, reliable wealth data and insights for key publications, such as the World’s Wealthiest Cities Report, the Africa Wealth Report and the Centi-Millionaire Report.

New World Wealth’s reports and findings have been referenced by the Australian and UK governments, as well as by global news outlets such as the BBC, Bloomberg, CNN, Forbes, the New York Times, Robb Report, and the Daily Telegraph.

For more information on New World Wealth, please visit newworldwealth.com.

‍For queries please contact:

‍andrew@newworldwealth.com

‍or: 

‍lucia.xypteras@platform45.com