Winner takes all? Tech clusters, population centers, and the spatial transformation of U.S. invention

U.S. invention has become increasingly concentrated around major tech centers since the 1970s, with implications for how much cities across country share in concomitant local benefits. Is becoming a winner-takes-all race? We explore rising spatial concentration of patents and identify an underlying stability their distribution. Software have exploded to account about half today, these are highly centers. Tech also growing non-software patents, but reallocation, by contrast, is entirely from five largest population 1980. Non-software patenting stable most cities, anchor tenants like universities playing important roles, suggesting may be nearing its end. Immigrant inventors new businesses aided transformation. The masks cities.