How AI Startups Are Redefining Palm Beach County’s Economy
An unprecedented wave of AI capital, talent, and infrastructure is transforming Palm Beach County from retirement haven to tech powerhouse and the numbers are startling.
Since 2018, Palm Beach County has generated almost 16,000 tech jobs and attracted $26.4 billion in technology-sector contributions to the local economy, according to a CBRE report. Average tech salaries now exceed $106,000, far above the county’s median income, while venture capital has poured hundreds of millions into artificial intelligence startups from Boca Raton to West Palm Beach.
This isn’t incremental growth, it’s economic transformation, powered by strategic incentives, corporate migration, and a national AI boom that’s reshaping competitive dynamics across cloud infrastructure, healthcare compliance, biotech, logistics, and more.
The Wage Disruption: AI Jobs Pay Double the Local Median
The immediate shockwave is salary inflation. AI companies entering Palm Beach County aren’t offering jobs at the county’s median household income of roughly $68,000. They are delivering wages two to three times higher, fundamentally altering local earnings.
A prime example:
On September 16, 2025, ServiceNow, a public AI platform company valued at $193 billion, announced plans to hire 856 employees by 2030 at average salaries of $170,000. The company estimates a $1.8 billion regional economic impact over five years tied to its new 200,000-square-foot facility at 10 CityPlace.
“The AI innovation economy has a new epicenter in the Gold Coast of West Palm Beach, Florida,” said Bill McDermott, Chairman & CEO, ServiceNow.
Kelly Smallridge, President & CEO of the Business Development Board of Palm Beach, called it "the largest relocation deal I have ever seen in over three decades of doing this."
But ServiceNow is just one headline among many in the region.
Although the region has seen a 25% surge in tech job openings since 2024, with AI talent commanding the highest premiums, the South Florida area is not yet known for its local AI talent. We fall behind areas such as Autin, Atlanta, Boston and Chicago who are all in the top 10 for AI talent in the United States. According to LinkedIn:
– AI engineers in the region earn $120,000–$180,000.
– Machine learning specialists earn $130,000–$200,000.
– Senior AI architects easily surpass $200,000.
These high earners drive ripple effects in housing, legal services, wealth management, executive recruiting, and luxury retail, rewiring the region’s economic structure.
The Capital Avalanche: Hundreds of Millions Flow Into AI
Palm Beach County’s AI startups aren’t raising modest rounds, they’re attracting Silicon Valley–level capital.
In December 2024, West Palm Beach–based cloud provider Vultr closed a $333 million round at a $3.5 billion valuation, co-led by AMD Ventures and LuminArx Capital. AMD’s strategic investment secured critical GPU supply.
“We want to be the cloud provider that empowers everyone… and we want to do it from right here in South Florida,” shared J.J. Kardwell, CEO of Vultr.
Founded in 2014, Vultr now operates 32 data centers and serves 1.5 million customers in 185 countries. Much of its new capital is dedicated to its first AMD-powered “supercompute” cluster.
Additional notable raises:
– IntelePeer: $140M (July 2024) for conversational AI; >100% YoY growth since 2020
– Synergist Technology: $5M for AFFIRM, an AI governance platform
– Dono: $3.7M for real estate transaction AI
This is not conservative capital. It is aggressive, return-seeking capital that’s fueling a local ecosystem that historically thrived on real estate and tourism, not high-growth software.
The Real Estate Impact: AI Demand Overwhelms Local Supply
AI companies require infrastructure that differs from traditional tenants:
– power-intensive data centers
– advanced cooling systems
– large office campuses
– extremely high connectivity bandwidth
As a result, they are reshaping the county’s commercial landscape.
ServiceNow’s 200,000-square-foot lease at 10 CityPlace represents one of the largest downtown West Palm Beach absorptions on record. Related Companies CEO Stephen Ross now oversees 3 million square feet built and 3.5 million more planned in the county.
The Boca Raton Innovation Campus, a transformed 1.7-million-square-foot former IBM site, has become another AI hub and home to 18 national headquarters and 19 regional offices including Modernizing Medicine, Baptist Health, Kroger, and Canon.
Property values reflect the surge:
– West Palm Beach property values hit $25.49 billion in 2025, up 87% from 2019.
– Local employment rose from 74,492 (2019) to 80,237 (2024).
The Specialization Effect: AI Subsectors Forming Local Supply Chains
Palm Beach County’s AI ecosystem is diversifying rapidly:
AI Governance & Compliance | Synergist Technology’s AFFIRM platform responds to 700+ AI-related bills proposed nationwide in 2025. Microsoft partnered with Synergist, with executive Vishal Amin calling the company “a trusted partner” in AI compliance.
AI Biotech | Digital Ether Computing (founded in 2025) applies AI to drug discovery, creating demand for laboratory space, clinical partnerships, and FDA-focused regulatory experts.
AI Logistics | Greenscreens AI optimizes pricing for 3PL providers, connecting local AI talent to national supply chain networks.
AI Fintech | TraderBro builds AI investment assistants for retail investors, driving growth in fintech operations, marketing, and compliance.
Each niche sector supports its own cluster of attorneys, consultants, data partners, and specialized service providers, building a multi-layered local AI economy.
The Talent Gap: Universities Are Racing to Keep Up
Despite aggressive investment, talent remains the county’s biggest bottleneck.
Florida Atlantic University continues expanding programs to meet demand such as the U.S. Air Force Center of Excellence for connected AI autonomy, new MS and Professional MS programs in AI, and growing enrollment across engineering and computing programs.
The Research Park at FAU recently added five companies to its Global Ventures program, including Israeli-founded MyWayv.
Palm Beach State College secured $1M for AI and VR training programs and hosted its second annual “AI: Here and Now” summit in 2025.
Still, companies continue to recruit nationally for AI-heavy roles, indicating local supply is growing, but not fast enough.
The Public Investment Calculus: Incentives, Risk & Reward
ServiceNow’s relocation included $17M in incentives ($15M state, $2M city), with strict clawbacks tied to hiring.
Mayor Keith James emphasized the city’s strategy in a recent press article stating, “I’m not looking for companies to build me pretty buildings. I’m looking for companies to help me build a community.”
High-salary jobs generate substantial income and sales tax revenue, but they also strain infrastructure such as roads, utilities, public services and affordable housing.
The Business Development Board has supported 140+ companies over five years, creating or retaining 13,110 jobs averaging over $80,000.
The question now: Can local infrastructure keep pace?
The Verdict: A Transformation Measured in Billions
Palm Beach County’s AI surge is part of a broader realignment fueled by tax policy, remote work trends, and the acceleration of artificial intelligence.
The headline numbers: $333M for Vultr, $140M for IntelePeer, $1.8B projected from ServiceNow, show immense momentum. But the deeper transformation is structural:
– new physical infrastructure
– expanded talent pipelines
– emerging sector clusters
– record-breaking capital inflows
Bill McDermott’s declaration that West Palm Beach is “the epicenter of AI” may be aspirational, but it’s not far-fetched. The region is no longer a tech afterthought. It is a rising AI hub competing on a national stage.
The question isn’t whether AI will reshape Palm Beach County. It already has.
The question is whether the region can sustain its trajectory as competition intensifies, talent remains scarce, and the AI cycle inevitably cools.
For now, the Gold Coast is betting big on artificial intelligence and the chips, quite literally, are on the table.
