Marc Andreessen (official company pic)
Michael Moritz, Reid Hoffman and Marc Andreessen are among a group of investors looking to build an entirely new city in Silicon Valley. The New York Times reported that the group spent $800 million so far as part of their plan to buy up thousands of acres of land along San Francisco Bay.
A company called Flannery Associates, said the Times, has been buying large plots of land in a largely agricultural region 60 miles northeast of San Francisco.
The reason for the development plans is likely the need to deal with a lack of housing in the area. Ever since Silicon Valley and San Francisco Bloomed with the high-tech boom, real estate prices and the cost of living in the area skyrocketed. So, there is clearly a market for new housing developments.
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Spokesman Brian Brokaw, who represents the investors, said in a statement to local KGO-TV, “We are proud to partner on a project that aims to deliver access to good-paying jobs, affordable housing, clean energy, sustainable infrastructure, open space, and a healthy environment to residents of Solano County. We are excited to start working with residents and elected officials, as well as with Travis Air Force Base, on making that happen. That conversation starts next week, and we look forward to sharing more then.”
Brokaw added that the group is comprised of “Californians who believe that Solano County’s and California’s best days are ahead.”
But Fairfield California Mayor Catherine Moy is skeptical. She told KGO “that the area is known for its drought conditions and so, in her opinion, the acquisition of the land “makes zero sense.”
“There’s no mass transit,” she said. “It does not have fresh water. There is some water, but not enough for tens of thousands of homes. You’d have to dig wells or convince Fairfield to give water and that would be a big fat no from us.”
Marc Andreessen is a cofounder and general partner at the venture capital firm Andreessen Horowitz. According to his official bio, Andreessen is an innovator and creator, one of the few to pioneer a software category used by more than a billion people and one of the few to establish multiple billion-dollar companies.
He co-created the highly influential Mosaic Internet browser and co-founded Netscape, which later sold to AOL for $4.2 billion. He also co-founded Loudcloud, which as Opsware, sold to Hewlett-Packard for $1.6 billion. He later served on the board of Hewlett-Packard from 2008 to 2018.
Reid Hoffman is the co-founder of LinkedIn and a partner at Greylock.
Reid Hoffman joined Greylock in 2009 and focuses on early-stage investing in products that can reach hundreds of millions of participants. His unique understanding of consumer behavior and a clear-eyed ability to guide startups from inception through ramped-up “blitzscaling” has made him one of the most sought-after advisors, partners, and investors today. Reid was a board observer for Airbnb and currently serves as a board director for Aurora, Blockstream, Coda, Convoy, Entrepreneur First, Joby Aviation, Microsoft, Nauto, and a few early-stage companies still in stealth.
