San Francisco is now officially back to poaching major tech conferences away from other cities, as Microsoft has moved its Build 2026 conference to San Francisco, snubbing the conference’s longtime home of Seattle.
Long before there was a San Francisco Doom Loop narrative, there was the legitimate problem of SF losing its best tech conferences and professional conferences to other cities. Maybe it was because Las Vegas offers cheaper accommodations, maybe it was because of the homelessness,,, and maybe, just maybe, that trend has now reversed.
Probably thanks to the crazy amount of money being thrown around by the AI industry, SF just lured a tech conference from another city. SFGate reports that Microsoft is holding its Build conference in San Francisco in 2026, a conference that has been held in Seattle for most of the last ten years.
The Build conference has been held in Seattle every (non-COVID-cancellation) year since 2017. But Microsoft Build used to be a San Francisco conference, and was last held here in San Francisco in 2016.
Microsoft-owned GitHub CEO Kyle Daigle seems to be speaking as the de facto spokesperson of this year’s Build conference, likely because Microsoft thinks he has more cred with the AI set. “Let’s ship it to San Francisco and see what we learn this year with that audience that can come and join us, and see about the years following,” Daigle said in an interview with The Verge.
Translation: Let’s move this to where the AI money is, to hopefully remain more relevant, and sell more conference tickets,
If you care to maybe attend, this year’s Microsoft Build conference will be June 2–3 at the Fort Mason Center.
Image: SAN FRANCISCO, CA - MARCH 30: Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella delivers the keynote address during the 2016 Microsoft Build Developer Conference on March 30, 2016 in San Francisco, California. The Microsoft Build Developer Conference runs through April 1. (Photo by Justin Sullivan/Getty Images)
