Anthropic, the San Francisco startup behind the popular artificial intelligent agent Claude, is planning an October initial public offering likely to raise as much as $60 billion. Anthropic’s competitor OpenAI, creator of ChatGPT, is scheduling its IPO for early next year, an event expected to be as lucrative — if not more so — than that of its rival. 

The AI boom is San Francisco’s latest Gold Rush. This one is distinguished by nearly unfathomable wealth in the hands of a very few. The impact could change the city forever, exacerbating an already extreme wealth  gap and leading to displacement. In 2019 when Lyft, Uber, Airbnb, and Slack went public, some 1,500 San Franciscans were evicted from their homes, twice the annual average. Countless others will leave on their own accord because the city has become too expensive.

In addition, AI executives have become leading political donors, contributing $65 million so far this year – and with no signs of slowing down –  towards candidates who promise to protect the nascent industry from government regulation. Wealthy tech executives have also shown a reluctance to pay taxes that support services for working class and vulnerable San Franciscans. Their resistance to paying their fair share of taxes will only worsen the city’s wealth gap, which is amongst the highest in the country.

Should their IPOs be successful, and there is little doubt that they will be, Anthropic and OpenAI will be worth more than $1 trillion each, more valuable than Walmart which has a market capitalization of more than $871 million. Thousands of Anthropic employees, many of them newcomers to San Francisco, will become multimillionaires overnight, far exceeding the financial means of their neighbors. At first, much of that money will be spent on real estate, whether it be a luxury condo or a home in one of the city’s toniest neighborhoods.

Tushar Kumar, founder of Twin Peaks Wealth Advisers, told the Business Insider: “The level of wealth I'm seeing with these two companies is like nothing I've seen in my career." Financial planner Alex Caswell, echoed Kumar, saying his OpenAI and Anthropic clients are "shocked by what they now have available to them." Even those in non-technical jobs are projected to see their net worth exceed $10 million, Caswell said.

Together, Anthropic’s and OpenAI’s IPOs are projected to create 12,000 new millionaires. In addition to stock options, AI workers in technical jobs already earn as much as $400,000 a year in base salaries.

According to Redfin, the median home price in the San Francisco metro area has increased by more than 10% in the last year, making it the highest in the United States. Notably, home prices in luxury neighborhoods have experienced sharp increases while those in more affordable areas have dropped. The upstick can be traced to the release of OpenAI’s ChatGPT in 2022. “What’s different this time is that the benefits or the prosperity of A.I. seems much more concentrated,” Redfin’s Chief Economist Daryl Fairweather explained to the New York Times.

Rentals are similarly on the rise: Zillow reports that the average rent for a newly leased 1-bedroom apartment in San Francisco is more than $4,000 a month, representing a nearly $1000 jump from a year ago. Two-bedroom median rents are up nearly 26% over last year, coming in at $6,020 a month –  a first in San Francisco history. Jackie Tom, a rental broker, said a quarter of the applicants she sees are AI employees. With as much as $40,000 a month to spend, they can easily outbid San Franciscans who work outside the AI industry.

Most of the money generated in AI IPOs will find its way into the pockets of company executives and at least some of that money will fuel right-wing political campaigns. OpenAI President Greg Brockman and his wife Anna each gave $12.5 million in 2025 to President Donald Trump’s Political Action Committee, Maga Inc., making them one of the PAC’s largest donors. 

In addition, Brockman founded Leading the Future with venture capital firm Andreessen Horowitz and Palantir cofounder Joe Lonsdale. As mentioned above, in the first half of 2026, the AI industry has spent $65 million on Democrats and Republicans who oppose regulating the nascent industry. Sam Altman, OpenAI’s chief executive, has also become a prolific political donor. Altman gave $1 million to Trump’s inaugural fund as well as to conservatives like Senators Ted Cruz of Texas and Marsha Blackburn of Tennessee. In San Francisco, Altman served as co-chair of Mayor Daniel Lurie’s transition team, advising him on business policy at the same time he sought corporate tax breaks from the city.

San Francisco has recovered from similar booms and busts. But each time, it emerges it is different. The AI bubble promises to change the city again and not for the better.