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Consulting firm KPMG has moved the Boston metro up three places in its latest worldwide ranking of tech hubs that will lead innovation over the next four years.
The firm put Boston in 12th place alongside Chicago and Toronto in early 2018. This year, Boston took ninth, vaulting past India’s Silicon Valley in Bangalore, Israel’s biggest city Tel Aviv and German capital Berlin.
Austin, Texas shared ninth place with Boston in this year’s rankings. The report cited “headline-grabbing announcements by several of the tech giants” as why Boston and Austin moved up in the rankings. The cities ahead of Boston were, in order, New York City, Beijing, Tokyo, London, Shanghai, Taipei, Singapore, and Seoul.
KPMG surveyed 740 industry leaders, predominantly company executives, about the future of the tech industry. For the first time, more than half of respondents – 58 percent – said they believed Silicon Valley was not the future of global tech innovation, citing the Bay Area’s high cost of living, overtaxed infrastructure, corporate diversity issues, scrutiny of business’ data privacy practices and high taxes.
Boston has repeatedly been cited as having a cost of living only just behind New York and San Francisco.
