Global Tech Talent Guidebook 2025

About This Report

CBRE's Global Tech Talent Guidebook is a comprehensive analysis of labor supply, cost and quality that will help decision-makers meet critical business and innovation objectives, including company location and hiring strategy.

The distribution of tech talent around the world is the result of many factors that have increased demand for tech workers beyond large tech clusters and into smaller and specialized markets. These factors include labor market conditions, quality of life, demographics, educational attainment, capital funding and the availability and cost of real estate.

The Guidebook classifies 115 global markets as “powerhouse,” “established” or “emerging.” Powerhouse markets (12) are major urban centers with large tech talent pools, mature tech ecosystems, stable regulatory environments, access to capital and the ability to attract tech entrepreneurs and talent from around the world. Established markets (63) have similar characteristics but on a smaller scale, wielding more regional than global strength. Emerging markets (40) are rapidly developing tech ecosystems that have some of the key ingredients to become more established, including workforce skills and a concentration of homegrown tech companies.

This analysis also provides insight into how the size and depth of each market’s tech talent pool contributes to real estate demand.

Companies across the world are looking farther afield for more tech talent workers to deploy new, transformative technologies like artificial intelligence for operational efficiencies.

In some markets, demand for tech talent is beginning to outstrip supply, particularly for highly skilled workers in programming, hardware engineering and data analysis and management. In North America alone, tech talent encompasses 20 different occupations that drive innovation across all industry sectors.

The tech sector has traditionally been an accelerator of economic transformation, as businesses and consumers increasingly rely on new and improved tech products and services. It has become a larger part of the global economy and has driven innovation and collaboration across geographic boundaries.

AI Spotlight

AI-related VC investment reached a record-high $129 billion across more than 5,900 deals in 2024, 56% higher than the prior year and 3% more than the previous record in 2021 (Figures 9A and 9B). AI-related companies increased their share of overall VC funding to 35% in 2024 from 21% in 2021. About two-thirds of total AI-related VC funding over the past five years went to North American companies, mostly U.S.

Figure 9A: Artificial Intelligence Venture Capital Funding Volume by Global Region

Figure 9B: Artificial Intelligence Venture Capital Deal Count by Global Region

The top global markets for AI-related VC funding in 2024 were the San Francisco Bay Area, London, New York, Beijing and Paris, which combined accounted for $77 billion or 60% of the global total (Figure 10).

The long-term growth prospects of the tech industry and tech talent demand remain strong, as global economies digitally transform. Innovations like AI will catalyze the next economic growth cycle, producing significant monetary value, tech talent employment and real estate demand.

Figure 10: Top Global Markets for Artificial Intelligence Venture Capital Funding (2024)

AI development, one of today’s most in-demand skills, was also quantified for the 15 largest workforces by country (Figure 14). The U.S. and India have the largest AI-development workforces at approximately 406,000 and 375,000, respectively, according to Linkedin Talent Insights. The U.K., Germany, Canada, Brazil and France each exceeded 50,000. There is continued high demand for AI-development talent, especially in Poland, the U.S. and Germany where current jobs postings are about 8% of existing AI-related professionals.

Bengaluru, San Francisco Bay Area, New York, Delhi and Hyderabad are the largest AI-development talent markets. The San Francisco Bay Area currently has the most AI-development job postings, followed by Bengaluru, Washington, D.C., New York and Seattle. Chinese markets were excluded because utilization of LinkedIn in that country was insufficient.

Figure 14: Artificial Intelligence Tech Talent by Country & Metro Market* (Top 15)