In Silicon Valley, the ultra-rich get richer while many residents struggle just to survive. The Guardian reports that economic inequality in the California region that's home to the likes of Apple, Google, and Meta has reached staggering new levels. According to San Jose State University's 2025 "Silicon Valley Pain Index," just 0.1% of residents now control 71% of the region's wealth, and the nine richest billionaires alone hold $683.2 billion (a report out in March found that Mark Zuckerberg accounted for between $220 billion and $230 billion of that, notes the San Jose Mercury News), an increase of $136 billion since last year. Meanwhile, 110,000 households reported having little or no assets at all. The index, which has tracked inequality in the tech capital since 2020, defines "pain" as "both personal and community distress or suffering."
And while the wealth gap in Silicon Valley is growing at twice the national rate, so is the cost of living. Renters now need to earn $136,532 a year to afford an average apartment, the highest rental income requirement in the country. San Jose ranks fourth among the most "impossibly unaffordable" cities in the world, behind only Hong Kong, Sydney, and Vancouver. Despite this, no cities in Silicon Valley have raised the minimum wage in three years. "Fifty-four thousand low-income households don't have access to affordable housing in San Jose," the report states, "and homelessness rose 8.2% in the past year." Much more from the Guardian here.
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