If Silicon valley is so expensive, why don't companies move to the midwest?

It’s because the Bay Area has two of the best science and engineering universities in the world, Stanford and UC Berkeley.

It’s the same reason Boston is considered the eastern equivalent to Silicon Valley, with its proximity to MIT.

So it's just that people would rather pay a fortune for overhead than move. Sound kinda weird for me.

It’s an endless supply of fresh top-notch engineering talent right in your backyard. Why wouldn’t companies want that?

but A lot of the tech companies don't really need anything but a building and employees.

>The midwest is a lot closer and in the same country.
if they move away from the US they wouldn't have to deal with h1b caps and shit. they could hire all the indians they want as they always say they immigrants are the best. not like millions of people around the world are desperate to get to california or anything.

no one particularly wants to live in the midwest

It's not that. It's that the situation in SF is literally shitty, () and moving isn't that huge a cost, especially when compared with SF-tier rent. Both companies and employees would profit from a move.

Most of the larger companies DO have POPs in the Midwest. The talent pool is smaller, but the can get ppl. fo cheap. microsoft.com/en-us/about/officelocator/all-offices

Because they can't bring they're leftist bullshit with them to the Midwest, and any attempts to change the Midwest's culture to something resembling that of the Bay Area would be met with fierce resistance
It's the same problem Texas and Colorado are having currently with the white liberal flight coming from California

>but A lot of the tech companies don't really need anything but a building and employees.

Employees are a lot harder to find than you might think. Especially competent ones.

Internet/network infrastructure is a big thing anymore. Outside of big cities the quality of internet/network takes a big nose dive. Why would you move your company to a bum shit hole if you can't get the internet or network bandwidth you need? Sure you might be able to get it put in, but at much higher cost compared to major cities. If your a startup, every dollar you can save is a bonus.

Overland Park and all the neighboring communities of Kansas City would like to have a word with you

i was parroting op

The history behind Silicon valley is pretty interesting.

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shockley_Semiconductor_Laboratory

Shockley (along with two others) invented the transistor and started more-or-less the first modern tech company around it. He knew he needed enthusiastic young people not old vacuum tube men, so he setup in the Bay area. Young people like sunshine and beaches and stuff. A lot of his employees eventually quit and started their own companies in the area so it grew into what it is today.

A tech company in 2018 can't just pack up and move to the midwest without losing half its programmers. They like where they are and will find somewhere else to work.

OP, what really needs to happen is a focus on STEM, specifically CE, in the Midwest and start-ups to get big in the Midwest
this user has a point, SV isn't going to just uproot itself unless the situation was dire and they were forced to

If those companies moved elsewhere, they would increase prices there too.

Maybe it's better to keep it contained in one area, so that it's easier to nuke.