California Forever: The Startup Building America's Next Great City

Summary

Jan Sramek, founder of California Forever, presents his plan to build a new city on roughly 70,000 acres in Solano County, California, backed by more than $1 billion raised from investors. He argues California's decline is self-inflicted by a failure to build housing, factories and infrastructure, and pitches three projects: the Solano Foundry advanced-manufacturing park, a West Coast deep-water shipyard, and a walkable city for up to 400,000 people. The talk frames the project as part of the reindustrialization and abundance movements and contains no public-market trade ideas.

• California Forever has raised over $1 billion and acquired nearly 70,000 acres in Solano County, between Silicon Valley and Sacramento.
• Sramek attributes California's homelessness, unaffordability and company departures to failing to build enough housing, offices, factories, freeways, trains and energy.
• The Solano Foundry is pitched as the largest advanced-manufacturing park in America, co-locating Bay Area robotics and AI talent with production.
• He argues the US can only compete with China in manufacturing through automation that raises productivity per worker, not by adding labor.
• A single Chinese shipyard built more ships last year than the US has built since World War II, while US yards are concentrated on the East Coast and Gulf.
• He warns a Pacific conflict could close the Panama Canal, so the US urgently needs West Coast shipyards; Solano's 6.5 miles of deep-water waterfront could host them.
• The plan includes a walkable city for up to 400,000 people inspired by traditional American neighborhoods such as Charleston and the West Village.
• The project is framed as a symbol of reindustrialization and the abundance movement; no public securities or investment calls are discussed.