Can you buy a Silicon Valley? Maybe. by Paul Graham

They're certainly giving it a go: San Diego, Seattle/Vancouver, Toronto/Montreal, Denver, Austin, North Carolina, Berlin, Cambridge UK, Boston/Cambridge. There's going to be more, as both Austin and North Carolina are tangled up in US politics.

The key thing is the view of the "pertinent governments" towards non-competes. SV took over from Boston back in the 60's-70's because of the (very?) business-oriented treatment of such things. Route 128 was where minicomputers came from and all those related things. If the local environment is favourable towards money AND workers, things will take off. And even with the more-conservative environment in Boston/Cambridge, it's still the centre for biotech/pharma and applied ML/AI. But for that niche, the schools aren't in SV, they're in MA.

Needs (2009) in the title.