Despite high-profile billionaire departures and complaints about costs, California is pulling in more than $335 billion in venture capital " about ten times New York " fueled by an AI boom. Los Angeles and Southern California are emerging as power centers in this surge, with nearly $8 billion invested across 207 deals, led by space and defense firms such as Anduril Industries and Impulse Space. Yet almost 90% of new money is chasing AI giants such as Anthropic and OpenAI, leaving non-AI startups and smaller funds squeezed as the pipeline of initial public offerings narrows to a few blockbuster bets. Despite concerns that California's costs and regulations are bad for business, the state has attracted an unprecedented pile of capital this year, and no other state is even close.