Visa has announced that its annual Visa Payments Forum will return to San Francisco’s Moscone Center from 2026 through 2030, following a period in which the event was held in Dallas. The company made a multi-year commitment for the conference to be hosted in its hometown, signaling confidence in both the city’s recovery and California’s innovation sector.
The 2026 forum is set to mark the event’s 20th anniversary and is expected to be its largest gathering yet, with projections of more than 3,000 attendees. This expansion will also see greater participation from clients across Asia-Pacific and Europe.
Governor Gavin Newsom responded to the announcement by stating: “California’s status as the world’s innovation capital is a point of pride for our state. California is the birthplace of many of our nation’s most celebrated companies, including Visa. When companies like Visa double down on California, it means more jobs, more tourism and more momentum for our world-leading economy.”
Visa previously hosted a one-off forum in San Francisco in 2024, coinciding with the opening of its new global headquarters in Mission Rock. While the event moved temporarily to Dallas in 2025, Visa pointed to its longstanding ties to California and noted factors such as San Francisco’s innovation ecosystem and an increase in downtown spending during 2025 as reasons for bringing the forum back.
Several other companies have also relocated or returned operations to California recently. Dickies announced it would move its headquarters from Fort Worth, Texas, to Southern California after over a century there. Avathon shifted its base from Austin, Texas, to Silicon Valley, while Heart Aerospace relocated from Sweden to Los Angeles this spring.
California currently hosts more Fortune 500 companies than any other state—including Texas and Florida—and has about 1.7 million private sector businesses responsible for nearly 87% of jobs statewide. The state maintains its position as a leader in new business creation, venture capital investment, manufacturing, high technology sectors and agriculture.
With an increasing population and record-high tourism spending contributing to what is now recognized as the world’s fourth-largest economy (https://www.cnbc.com/2023/10/25/california-edges-out-germany-as-worlds-fourth-largest-economy.html), officials highlight that California continues not only to support but also drive national economic trends.
