Columnist: AI giants OpenAI and Anthropic are fueling San Francisco's housing crisis
An opinion piece argues the companies are largely responsible for the city's fastest-growing rents while offering minimal community investment in return.
What to know
- OpenAI and Anthropic's rapid growth and high-wage hiring are blamed for San Francisco's fastest-growing rental rates, though the companies contribute substantial tax revenue ($236 million from OpenAI alone).
- Mayor Lurie requested the companies invest directly in housing and education; OpenAI declined, defending its tax payments and small grant programs as sufficient contribution.
- Reddit commenters debate whether tech companies or local zoning restrictions and homeowner resistance to development are the real root cause of the crisis.
The dispute Is the housing crisis driven primarily by tech company growth and hiring, or by regulatory barriers and zoning restrictions that prevent adequate new construction? · positions read across 15 posts and comments
Tech companies are the primary driver; they should be held accountable with direct community investment beyond taxes.
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“This company is largely responsible for making it harder to live in San Francisco, and the best it can give us is that it pays its taxes on time”
SFGate columnist · SFGate opinion piece
Zoning restrictions and homeowner opposition to housing construction are the real root cause, not tech company presence.
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“I think it's easy to blame tech in SF, Seattle etc but they are not the root of the problem. People don't want to acknowledge that the real cause of the problem is all the homeowners who fight tooth and nail to block housing construction”
Neverending_Rain · Reddit
“I think it's easy to blame tech in SF, Seattle etc but they are not the root of the problem. People don't want to acknowledge that the real cause of the problem is all the homeowners who fight tooth and nail to block housing construction”
Neverending_Rain, Reddit commenter · Reddit
Daniel Lurie San Francisco Mayor
Sarah Friar OpenAI Chief Financial OfficerSFGate columnist Opinion writer
The record 1 articles and posts · last 30 days
What people are saying 14 voices from 1 site · best of 15 · verbatim
- Aug 30
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OpenAI is just a business. It attracts jobs, pays high salaries, and pays lots of taxes. Their offices don't make pollution, noise or anything else. Its not OpenAI's job to improve the city, thats what the pay the city tax dollars for. The city just can't get anything done.
- Aug 29
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All jobs are not the same. That is my point. You can create high paying jobs at the same time you make it difficult for people who have low paying jobs.
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So you want everyone to live in single family homes but think NIMBYs are the problem? How do you even be a NIMBY against single family homes, the whole point is to build on cheap undeveloped land. The bay area is already all developed with single family homes. There is no solution to the housing crisis that involves more single family homes.
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How exactly did they attribute blame to OpenAI and Anthropic ruining the city again? Too much hiring and jobs? Data centers? Those aren't the problems SF is facing. The problems SF is facing where there before those 2 and will be there even if they were gone.
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> I don't think anyone in SF believes OpenAI and Anthropic are ruining the city Literally this morning I was telling a (remote) coworker about how OpenAI and Anthropic are ruining SF (I live here), *before* I saw this article. It was a funny coincidence when I saw the headline after the conversation.
- Aug 28
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The article doesn’t say anything about single family homes. Where did you get that?
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True lol. Density in the urban environment presents newer and harder to solve issues.
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You can build up. I don’t know why people think this is some sort of gotcha. Like 60% of San Francisco is zoned for single family only, that’s a problem. San Francisco is like 1/3 the density of Paris
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The owners are allowed to do that, the buyer is allowed to do that, investors would be allowed to do that. I’m not advocating for eminent domain and the government doing it.
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I understand that question is not relevant to my point whatsoever, does that work? You may be reading too much into what I wrote, at least, that is the charitable explanation for your responses. Stating that the fact buyers show a preference for single family homes is an "extraordinary claim" is in itself a rather laughable statement, which…
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Builders would build anything they could in San Fransisco if it wasn't illegal to do so.
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Ultra limited space with high development costs and restrictive zoning, to the point that just about any activist group can shut down development in most neighborhoods. Demanding more intensive environmental studies and tying things up in court for years is pretty common, as are activist groups in areas like the Mission district that prevent…
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The state has passed a series of bills, most recently SB 79, that force municipalities to upzone and remove barriers to development. There has been a lot of resistance but they are starting to get results.
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I feel you, but does that mean it’s less important to talk about? That’s kinda the point.