when Silicon Valley billionaires plan to build a city

This project is to be implemented in California, in a rural region between two large cities, San Francisco to the West and Sacramento to the East. A city for the middle classes, with affordable housing, well-paid jobs focused on renewable energies, these are the promises of this vast project.

Who are these investors? Since 2018, secrecy has surrounded the project and little information has circulated about the identity of the people capable of spending $800 million to buy 22,000 hectares in the Rio Vista region, about a hundred kilometers east of San Francisco. But on January 17, 2024, during a press conference, the name of the boss of California Forever was revealed. This is Jan Šrámek, who made a lot of money when he was a trader at Goldman Sachs.

Jan Šrámek was fishing in this rural area with, basically, cows and wind turbines, and thought it was the right place to build a town. He is accompanied in his project by some big names from Silicon Valley, Marc Andreessen, for example, the co-founder of Netscape, but also Reid Hoffman, co-founder of LinkedIn, or the venture capitalist Michael Moritz, resident of San Francisco, annoyed by the management of his city.

These investors want to build a city for the middle class. The goal is not a utopian city with ultra-modern skyscrapers but rather, if we judge from the sketches presented, a human-sized town of 50,000 inhabitants. The project therefore provides for the construction of 20,000 homes, at affordable prices, over the next 20 years. This offer would be accompanied by financial aid and the creation of 15,000 jobs for locals. This is one of California Forever’s ten commitments. We’re talking about well-paid jobs in sectors like renewable energy.

The project also promises a city where it will be easy to get around on foot or by bike, which is not so common in California, and also by public transit, which is even less common. The schools will be ready when the first residents arrive who will be able to enjoy lots of green space, with $30 million to invest.

The project must first be approved by county voters

The California Forever website makes sure to cite residents who are very excited about the project, the prospect of thousands of jobs and a broader range of services. But there are also concerns about the capacity of current infrastructure to accommodate tens of thousands of additional people in a rural region. Democratic elected officials and an environmental defense association have voiced their opposition.

And what will happen with these thousands of agricultural lands, which are no longer agricultural lands, if the project does not succeed? Because we will have to succeed in including California Forever on the list of referendums for the next election, in November, then obtain the necessary votes and behind this, we will have to respond to the many state regulations. Even if we are very optimistic, work will not be able to begin before 2026.