I lived in Boston (Inman Sq, Cambridge, later Back Bay, Boston) for 5 years after my undergraduate education. NYC is far, far more interesting and exciting than Boston. As an indirect indicator, NYC draws far more VC than Boston.

Depending on the data that you look at, NYC and Boston are pretty close. http://www.theatlantic.com/technology/archive/2016/01/global...

More importantly, Boston is much heavier into manufacturing technology, hardware, B2B software, etc whereas NYC is more focused on consumer, retail, fashion, etc. Boston is pretty clearly a better choice for GE.

In reality GE's HQ in Boston will represent a tiny fraction of their global employees, though, so it doesn't really matter. https://www.bostonglobe.com/business/2016/03/11/huge-but-its...

In Boston, they get interns from Harvard, MIT, Tufts, Northeastern and Wentworth. They get software people who don't want to live in NYC.

And they don't compete with every startup in NYC for those brains.

Given that GE is its own VC for the context, they really don't need to be in NYC.

More importantly, industrial Internet of Shit developers, smart grid companies, and related activities are going on at the Seaport District, right where GE is setting up shop.

What area of NYC is the equivalent of Kendall Square