About six years ago, serial entrepreneur Stuart McClure was having lunch in Irvine Spectrum Center with two local business leaders when they asked him how Orange County might best differentiate itself to boost and sustain its economy.
McClure, co-founder of Cylance, a cybersecurity firm driven by artificial intelligence, didn’t hesitate.
“Turn Orange County into an AI hub,” he answered. “Embrace it; empower it; expand it and drive it.”
A year later, one of McClure’s lunchmates – Doug Wilson, co-founder of a group of 60 civic-minded CEOs – accepted the challenge. Wilson’s group, the CEO Leadership Alliance of Orange County (CLAOC), has embarked on several strategies to develop an AI talent pool as it vows to create a global AI hub.
As home to tech-savvy UC Irvine and most OC startups, Irvine stands to reap outsized benefits.
“AI really is the future of how we work and how we exist and how we play,” McClure says. “It’s a powerful medium for creating, acting and predicting, so all those will come together in how we work to make ourselves better and smarter.” And wealthier. Five years after Cylance was sold to Blackberry for $1.4 billion, McClure is now simultaneously CEO of three AI startups.
“AI really is the future of how we work and how we exist and how we play. It’s a powerful medium for creating, acting and predicting, so all those will come together in how we work to make ourselves better and smarter.”
Stuart McClure
A flood of new investment
AI-related investments in Orange County – counting venture capital, private equity and corporate outlays – have jumped from roughly $23 million from 2008-11 to nearly $3 billion by 2020-23, according to “2024 State of AI in OC,” a report released in May and produced by the CLAOC and McKinsey & Company.
“From office towers in Irvine to high school classrooms in Anaheim to labs at UC Irvine, Orange County organizations have been early adopters of AI and are already realizing benefits across industries and functions,” says the report. It cites gains in established sectors, including cybersecurity, health care, gaming, clean energy, aerospace and defense as well as “tremendous growth” in “AI accelerators” providing consulting services to local firms.
The report highlighted accomplishments of several Irvine-based stars, including Helio Genomics, which uses AI to develop advanced early cancer detection technology; Medtronic, which uses machine learning to improve health tech; and Syntiant, which makes processors that deploy AI in everything from earbuds to cars.
Since 2020, the bulk of new, local AI investments have gone to five OC companies, the report noted, three of which are in Irvine: Helio Genomics, Syntiant and Alteryx, which helps businesses analyze large datasets.
Exceptional human capital
Irvine is contributing significant human capital to this effort, as demonstrated by McClure’s lunch, an example of the city’s special synergies. The third business leader at that meeting was Doug Holte, the former president of office properties at Irvine Company, which strategically invests in housing and offices to help create a successful local economy.
In the years since that lunch, the CEO leadership group has focused on strengthening a local talent pool by building partnerships with schools and industry. Its new AI Talent Lab is partnering with Nvidia, the Irvine-based consultancy Trace3, Run:ai and Chapman University to offer AI-focused work for high school, community college and university students. In 2022, Nvidia donated a supercomputer cluster to Chapman to help prepare more students from underserved communities to join an AI-focused workforce.
In the past two years, more than 100 students have taken a course in AI skills through the CLAOC, says Kristina Horn, manager of the group’s Artificial Intelligence Initiative.
The initiative’s five-year goals include providing 4,000 students with “industry-aligned technology credentials,” with at least 50% going on to get jobs.
“We already have a great talent pool,” Horn says, “but we want to make sure that the talent stays here and can get good-paying jobs.”
