--- title: "Billionaires Are Reportedly Trying to Start a New City Near San Francisco" description: "A billionaire-backed company has purchased tens of thousands of acres of land outside of San Francisco with the apparent intent of constructing an entirely new city, Insider and The New York Times report. The mysterious firm, dubbed Flannery Associates, has so far spent $800 million on mostly undeveloped ranch land in California's Solano County, court […]" date: "2023-08-31" modified: "2023-08-31" authors: - name: "Maggie Harrison Dupré" job_title: "Senior Staff Writer" link: "https://futurism.com/authors/mharrison" url: "https://futurism.com/billionaires-new-city-san-francisco" categories: - "Future Society" tags: - "billionaires" - "san francisco" - "silicon valley" - "utopia" --- # Billionaires Are Reportedly Trying to Start a New City Near San Francisco ![A billionaire-backed firm has reportedly purchased thousands of acres of California ranch land with the intent to build a new Silicon Valley.]() *\Image: Getty / Futurism\* A billionaire-backed company has purchased tens of thousands of acres of land outside of San Francisco with the apparent intent of constructing an entirely new city, *[Insider]()* and [*The New York Times* are reporting](). The mysterious firm, dubbed Flannery Associates, has so far spent an eyewatering $800 million on mostly undeveloped ranch land in California's Solano County, court documents obtained by *Insider* show. And it hasn't done so alone, with the venture counting the likes of Laurene Powell Jobs, widow to Apple founder Steve Jobs, LinkedIn cofounder and "PayPal Mafia" alum Reid Hoffman, Sequoia Capital chair Michael Moritz, and — who else? — the ever-reliable Silicon Valley [venture capital firm Andreessen Horowitz]() as investors, among others. Land records and correspondence show that Flannery Associates has been scooping up land for the city project since about 2017, and though very little is known about the plans for the city, Moritz, in a 2017 email to a prospective investor obtained the the *NYT*, reportedly described the utopian vision as a walkable, clean energy-powered, job-generating metropolis home to tens of thousands of residents, where new forms of urban government could be experimented with. If that's not a tech billionaire dream, we don't know what is. "Let me know if this tickles your fancy," Moritz wrote in the email, according to the *NYT.* Though the company has been raising money and gathering land for some time now, it's flown largely under the radar. Congressman John Garamendi, one of two Democrats who represents the surrounding region, told the *NYT* that he'd been trying to get to the bottom of who was behind the shady firm for the better part of four years now, albeit to no avail. "I couldn't find out anything," Garamendi told the *NYT.* That started to change back in May, when Flannery Associates sued Solano County landowners on grounds that area residents had engaged in artificial land price inflation. When Flannery first started buying up land, an acre was about $5,000 a pop; now, per *Insider*, it's somewhere around $20,000. Then in July, a Flannery Associates land purchase near California's Travis Air Force Base felt a little too close for comfort for local and federal officials, [sparking a government inquiry](). Former [Goldman Sachs wunderkind Jan Sramek]() has also been revealed as the mastermind behind the effort. The project is certainly ambitious, if unsurprising, given the lip service that any number of tech leaders — [Moritz included]() — have given to SF's many woes. Indeed, in that 2017 email, Moritz argued that the Solano County effort "should relieve some of the Silicon Valley pressures we all feel — rising home prices, homelessness, congestion, etc." To that end, though, it's worth noting that the effort feels deeply hypocritical. Sure, San Francisco has its problems, but [many of those issues]() were [exacerbated]() throughout the 2010s in large part *by* the tech industry. As far as running away from your problems goes, this has got to be the most expensive way to do it. But best of luck to Flannery Associates and its untitled town's future residents, who presumably will receive a complimentary [Andreessen Horowitz-funded sexbot]() from their billionaire overlords upon arrival. Only if that "tickles your fancy," of course. **More on billionaires building towns:** [*Report: Elon Musk is Building His Own Town in Texas*]() ## Author At Futurism, I've reported extensively on the rise of AI as a cultural and business force shaping the media industry, and more broadly how those dynamics are changing how we all consume and share information and relate to one another. I'm also fascinated by public health policy and ethics, the role of emerging tech in politics and governance — and the powerful people and forces at those intersections — climate change, and the environment. My investigation on Sports Illustrated's use of AI-generated authors with fictional biographies won a 2024 Mirror Award for "Best Story on Media Coverage of Artificial Intelligence in Journalism and the Media" from Syracuse University's SI Newhouse School, I contributed to Niemen Lab's 2025 Predictions for Journalism series, and I've discussed my work for Futurism during appearances on NPR, CNN, the BBC, the CBC, and more. I grew up in rural Pennsylvania and attended the University of Massachusetts Amherst, where I played Division I field hockey for the Minutewomen as a midfielder. Since then, I've lived in New Orleans, Louisiana and Manhattan, New York. I spend my free time running, reading, perusing archival fashion, and searching for the world’s best negroni. I also have a debonair tuxedo cat, Westley, who's named after "The Princess Bride." ### Author social links [Bluesky]()