{"h1":"Best all-round cities for AI careers in the West Coast","faq":[{"a":"Mountain View is the best all-round city for AI careers in the West Coast, with a score of 95 / 100.","q":"Which city ranks first: best all-round cities for ai careers in the west coast?"},{"a":"36 cities have at least 100 openings, so the list has 36 entries.","q":"How many cities are ranked?"},{"a":"A city's score is the weighted average of its percentile rank on each measure among the ranked cities (100 is first, 0 is last): ai-skill share of openings 35%, ai-skill openings 30%, median posted pay 20%, pay after cost of living 15%. A score of 100 would mean first on every measure and 50 is the middle of the pack. The measures and weights are fixed in advance and shown here; they are a judgment about what matters to this reader, so use the single-measure rankings when one thing matters most. Only cities with enough openings and pay data are ranked. A city where one employer posts more than 50% of its openings is not ranked, so a single company cannot decide a city's score.","q":"How is the ranking calculated?"},{"a":"Every month. This is the November 2026 edition. Older editions stay on this site at their own dated addresses.","q":"How often is it updated?"}],"lead":"Mountain View is the best all-round city for AI careers in the West Coast, with a score of 95 / 100.","minN":100,"rows":[{"n":1515,"bar":1,"key":"CA|mountain view","sub":"CA","href":"/places/california/city/mountain-view","name":"Mountain View","rank":1,"stats":[{"label":"AI-skill share of openings","value":"45%"},{"label":"AI-skill openings","value":"682"},{"label":"Median posted pay","value":"$213k"}],"value":95.2857142857143,"change":null,"employers":["Intuit","Waymo","Google"],"valueLabel":"95 / 100"},{"n":11798,"bar":0.9999999999999999,"key":"CA|san francisco","sub":"CA","href":"/places/california/city/san-francisco","name":"San Francisco","rank":2,"stats":[{"label":"AI-skill share of openings","value":"42%"},{"label":"AI-skill openings","value":"4,931"},{"label":"Median posted 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100"},{"n":3085,"bar":0.4527736131934031,"key":"CA|san diego","sub":"CA","href":"/places/california/city/san-diego","name":"San Diego","rank":19,"stats":[{"label":"AI-skill share of openings","value":"13%"},{"label":"AI-skill openings","value":"386"},{"label":"Median posted pay","value":"$150k"}],"value":43.14285714285714,"change":null,"employers":["Qualcomm Inc/De","Qualcomm Technologies","General Atomics"],"valueLabel":"43 / 100"},{"n":1503,"bar":0.4437781109445276,"key":"CA|irvine","sub":"CA","href":"/places/california/city/irvine","name":"Irvine","rank":20,"stats":[{"label":"AI-skill share of openings","value":"12%"},{"label":"AI-skill openings","value":"174"},{"label":"Median posted pay","value":"$156k"}],"value":42.28571428571428,"change":null,"employers":["Anduril Industries","Field AI","Rivian Automotive"],"valueLabel":"42 / 100"},{"n":5126,"bar":0.4257871064467765,"key":"CA|los angeles","sub":"CA","href":"/places/california/city/los-angeles","name":"Los 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0 is last): ai-skill share of openings 35%, ai-skill openings 30%, median posted pay 20%, pay after cost of living 15%.","A score of 100 would mean first on every measure and 50 is the middle of the pack. The measures and weights are fixed in advance and shown here; they are a judgment about what matters to this reader, so use the single-measure rankings when one thing matters most.","Only cities with enough openings and pay data are ranked.","A city where one employer posts more than 50% of its openings is not ranked, so a single company cannot decide a city's score."],"builtAt":"2026-11-03T03:50:28.595Z","edition":"2026-11","measure":"cai","sources":["NextChapter job data: open professional roles and posted pay","Bureau of Economic Analysis regional price parities 2024"],"baseline":null,"keyFacts":["#1 Mountain View, CA: 95 / 100","#2 San Francisco, CA: 95 / 100","#3 San Mateo, CA: 88 / 100","36 cities ranked in the West Coast","Data as of November 2026"],"placeNoun":"cities","commentary":["The top ten is tightly packed: Mountain View leads on 95 / 100, and #10 Seattle is at 76 / 100.","Foster City reaches #8 on a sample of 520 openings, a smaller market than most of the top ten, so its rank can move more from month to month.","San Francisco is the largest market in the top ten, with 11,798 openings behind its figure.","Cities with fewer than 100 openings are not ranked, and small differences between neighbouring ranks are not meaningful."],"license":"Free to use and share with a link to https://launchyournextchapter.com/rankings/best-all-round-cities-for-ai-careers-in-the-west-coast"}