- Hubble scored 409 U.S. cities on 12 indicators and placed San Diego first, then New York, San Jose, San Francisco and Santa Clara, with California claiming most of the top 20.
- San Diego leads in federal small-business research grants with 669 projects and holds over 17.5M SF of R&D and life sciences space, more than Cambridge or San Jose.
- Texas places Austin sixth and Houston ninth, and Chicago is the lone Midwestern city in the top 20, showing talent and research clusters reaching beyond the coasts.
San Diego edged out more than 400 cities to land first among U.S. innovation hubs in a new Hubble ranking.
New York finished second and was the only East Coast city in the top five. San Jose, San Francisco and Santa Clara followed.
Get Smarter about what matters in CRE
Stay ahead of trends in commercial real estate with CRE Daily – the free newsletter delivering everything you need to start your day in just 5-minutes
How the Score Works
Hubble graded 409 cities across 12 measures. These fall into three categories: output (45%), STEM talent (30%) and supporting ecosystem (25%). The scoring includes patents, federal small-business research grants, STEM jobs and research universities.
Additionally, real estate data comes from Yardi Research. This includes R&D and life sciences space, as well as coworking counts.
Why San Diego Won
San Diego leads the country in SBIR and STTR projects, with 669. It also has more than 17.5M SF of lab and research space built or underway. That’s ahead of Cambridge’s 16.3M SF and San Jose’s 16.2M SF.
The city also ranked third for patents. It recorded 23,470 grants from 2021 through 2025.
Beyond California
Austin ranked sixth, leading all Southern cities. Startups there raised more than $7.8B in 2025, their strongest year since 2021, Hubble notes.
Meanwhile, Cambridge placed seventh and Houston ninth. Seattle ranked 12th, leading the Pacific Northwest. Boston (15th) led the rest of the Northeast, while Chicago (20th) topped the Midwest.
Austin also has the nation’s youngest professional-services sector. Some 13.6% of its firms are less than a year old. Houston, meanwhile, benefits from NASA, the Texas Medical Center and Helix Park. It also has the study’s second-largest coworking count.
Atlanta ranked 17th, with STEM employment up 26.8% in five years. The city is also home to Georgia Tech, which ranked second nationally in federally sponsored research spending in 2024.
Silicon Valley’s Cluster
San Jose ranked third, largely due to patent volume. It recorded nearly 27,300 awards during the five-year period, the most of any city. However, it ranked only sixth for inventors. Hubble interprets that gap as a sign that fewer filers account for more inventions.
Santa Clara, home to Nvidia’s headquarters, recorded about 25,800 patents despite having just 133,000 residents. STEM workers account for 37% of employed residents, and their numbers grew 35.3%.
San Francisco, meanwhile, recorded the fourth-most patents. Those came from 1,360 filers, the nation’s second-largest group. This suggests the city has a deep base of active innovators.
New York’s Breadth
New York stands out for its breadth. Hubble counts more than 2,000 patent assignees there, compared with 1,360 in San Francisco and 1,100 in Houston. It also has more research-classified campuses than any other city.
From 2019 to 2024, New York posted the fastest STEM job growth among the top 20 cities. Health care and technology helped drive that increase. Additionally, the city offers nearly 440 coworking and flex sites, the largest supply nationally.
Seattle, Redmond and Boulder
Seattle has 5.2M SF of lab and research space, more than Houston or San Francisco. Meanwhile, UW received more than $1.7B in grants and contracts in fiscal 2025.
Nearby Redmond ranked 13th, supported by Microsoft’s presence. More than 10K patents there are tied to just 98 inventors or organizations.
Boulder placed 18th, with CU Boulder as a major research driver. The university received $766M in research support in fiscal 2025. It also launched 35 startups in 2024, a national high.
Zoom Out
Houston’s ranking aligns with local development activity. In our brief on Houston’s Ion District, we reported Rice University’s plan for The Arc. The project is a $75M, 200K SF research and office building, with groundbreaking set for Nov. 5.
Rice would occupy only 30K SF and market the remaining space. Meanwhile, the neighboring Ion building is more than 90% leased.
Why It Matters
These clusters attract talent, venture capital and demand for lab and office space. However, Hubble notes that lab demand in Cambridge has cooled since the earlier boom. Even so, the market remains the default address for life sciences.
San Francisco is the only top-20 city with declining STEM employment over five years. Yet it still attracts nearly 45% of U.S. venture dollars.
What’s Next
Watch new R&D supply in San Diego, Cambridge and San Jose. AI and life sciences funding will compete for space in these markets.
