Survey finds that the reported exodus of tech companies from San Francisco's Bay Area is 'greatly exaggerated'

• A survey from Telstra Ventures shows that the majority of startups stayed in San Francisco in 2020.
• Though some startups moved to Austin, Denver saw the highest percentage growth of startups.

A new survey throws cold water on a popular pandemic storyline about a mass exodus from Silicon Valley.

Telstra Ventures tracked venture capital investment in major and emerging tech hubs across America, and published the results Thursday. The firm found nearly all startups remained in the San Francisco Bay area.

While much has been made of the reported exodus of technology firms from San Francisco to new hubs like Austin, Telstra found that the phenomenon is not as common as many think. While Elon Musk has of course relocated to Texas, "96.9% of startups stayed in the Bay Area during 2020."

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Of the startups that moved, 12% relocated to Texas, 21% moved to New York, and 21% to other areas of California.

Notably, Austin, Texas was not the city with the most significant growth in startups: Denver, Colorado did, at 21% growth.

Despite the financial stressors of the pandemic, the survey found that venture capital investment in 2020 was up over 2019 by 4%. And, Telstra added "Dallas and Fort Worth that had VCs' attention, with a 66% boost in the number of VC investments made in 2020."

Insider reported in January that some companies moving from Austin has spurred changes in the Texas capital, and that the real estate market was "reeling from the new transplants."