Silicon Valley - Wikipedia Silicon Valley This article is about the high - tech hub of the San Francisco Bay Area. For other uses, see Silicon Valley ( disambiguation ). For the geographical valley, see Santa Clara Valley. Region of California in California, United States Silicon Valley Region of California Top to bottom, left to right : Downtown San Jose skyline ; Samsung HQ in North San Jose ; Googleplex in Mountain View ; View of the Santa Clara Valley ; Apple Park in Cupertino ; Adobe World Headquarters in San Jose ; Stanford University in Palo Alto. Country United States State California Region San Francisco Bay Area Megaregion Northern California Municipalities List Atherton Campbell Cupertino Los Altos Los Altos Hills Los Gatos Menlo Park Milpitas Monte Sereno Morgan Hill Mountain View Palo Alto San Jose Santa Clara Saratoga Sunnyvale Time zone Pacific ( UTC − 8 ) Summer ( DST ) PDT ( UTC − 7 ) Silicon Valley ( abbreviated as SV ) is a region in the southern San Francisco Bay Area of Northern California, referring to the Santa Clara Valley, which serves as the global center for high technology, venture capital, innovation, and social media. San Jose is the Valley 's largest city, the 3rd - largest in California, and the 10th - largest in the United States. Other major SV cities include Palo Alto, Santa Clara, Mountain View, and Sunnyvale. The San Jose Metropolitan Area has the third highest GDP per capita in the world ( after Zurich, Switzerland and Oslo, Norway ), according to the Brookings Institution. The word `` silicon '' originally referred to the large number of silicon chip innovators and manufacturers in the region, but the area is now the home to many of the world 's largest high - tech corporations, including the headquarters of 39 businesses in the Fortune 1000, and thousands of startup companies. Silicon Valley also accounts for one - third of all of the venture capital investment in the United States, which has helped it to become a leading hub and startup ecosystem for high - tech innovation and scientific development. It was in the Valley that the silicon - based integrated circuit, the microprocessor, and the microcomputer, among other key technologies, were developed. As of 2013, the region employed about a quarter of a million information technology workers. As more high - tech companies were established across San Jose and the Santa Clara Valley, and then north towards the Bay Area 's two other major cities, San Francisco and Oakland, the `` Silicon Valley '' has come to have two definitions : a geographic one, referring to Santa Clara County, and a metonymical one, referring to all high - tech businesses in the Bay Area. The term is now generally used as a synecdoche for the American high - technology economic sector. The name also became a global synonym for leading high - tech research and enterprises, and thus inspired similar named locations, as well as research parks and technology centers with a comparable structure all around the world. Contents 1 Origin of the term 2 History ( before 1970s ) 2.1 Roots in telegraph, radio, commercial and military technology 2.2 Ham radio 2.3 Welfare capitalism 2.4 U.S. response to Sputnik 2.5 Stanford University 2.6 Stanford Industrial Park 2.7 The silicon transistor 2.8 Computer networking 2.9 Immigration reform 3 History ( 1971 and later ) 3.1 Computer chips 3.2 Homebrew Computer Club 3.3 Venture capital firms 3.4 Media 3.5 Software 3.6 The Internet 3.7 Internet bubble 3.8 Early 21st century 4 Economy 4.1 Overview 4.2 Notable companies 4.3 Notable government facilities 5 Demographics 5.1 Diversity 5.2 Schools 6 Municipalities 7 Higher education 8 Culture 8.1 Museums 8.2 Performing arts 8.3 Events 9 Media 9.1 Cultural references 10 See also 11 References 12 Further reading 13 External links Origin of the term Perhaps the strongest thread that runs through the Valley 's past and present is the drive to `` play '' with novel technology, which, when bolstered by an advanced engineering degree and channeled by astute management, has done much to create the industrial powerhouse we see in the Valley today. -- Timothy J. Sturgeon The first published use of Silicon Valley is credited to Don Hoefler, a friend of local entrepreneur Ralph Vaerst 's who suggested the phrase to him. Hoefler used the phrase as the title of a series of articles in the weekly trade newspaper Electronic News. The series, titled `` Silicon Valley in the USA '', began in the paper 's January 11, 1971, issue. The term gained widespread use in the early 1980s, at the time of the introduction of the IBM PC and numerous related hardware and software products to the consumer market. The silicon part of the name refers to the high concentration of companies involved in the making of semiconductors ( silicon is used to create most semiconductors commercially ) and computer industries that were concentrated in the area. These firms slowly replaced the orchards and the fruits which gave the area its initial nickname -- the `` Valley of Heart 's Delight ''. Looking west over northern San Jose ( downtown is at far left ) and other parts of Silicon Valley History ( before 1970s ) The `` Birthplace of Silicon Valley '' garage in Palo Alto, where William Hewlett and David Packard started developing their audio oscillator in 1938 ( photographed 2016 ) For Santa Clara Valley history, see Santa Clara Valley. A sign describing the `` Birthplace of Silicon Valley '' garage, 2016 Silicon Valley was born through several contributing factors intersecting, including a skilled STEM research base housed in area universities, plentiful venture capital, and steady U.S. Department of Defense spending. Stanford University leadership was especially important in the valley 's early development. Together these elements formed the basis of its growth and success. Roots in telegraph, radio, commercial and military technology Downtown San Jose as seen with lit palm trees On August 23, 1899, the first ship - to - shore wireless telegraph message to be received in the US was from the San Francisco lightship outside the Golden Gate, signaling the return of the American fleet from the Philippines after their victory in the Spanish -- American War. The ship had been outfitted with a wireless telegraph transmitter by a local newspaper, so that they could prepare a celebration on the return of the American sailors. Local historian Clyde Arbuckle states in Clyde Arbuckle 's History of San Jose that `` California first heard the click of a telegraph key on September 11, 1853. It marked completion of an enterprise begun by a couple of San Francisco Merchants ' Exchange members named George Sweeney and Theodore E. Baugh... '' He says, `` In 1849, the gentleman established a wigwag telegraph station a top a high hill overlooking Portsmouth Squares for signaling arriving ships... The operator at the first station caught these signals by telescope and relayed them to the Merchant 's Exchange for the waiting business community. '' Arbuckle points to the historic significance the Merchants Exchange Building ( San Francisco ) and Telegraph Hill, San Francisco when he goes on to say `` The first station gave the name Telegraph to the hill on which it was located. It was known as the Inner Station ; the second, as the Outer Station. Both used their primitive mode of communication until Messrs. Sweeney and Baugh connected the Outer Station directly with the Merchants 's Exchange by electric telegraph Wire. '' According to Arbuckle ( p. 380 -- 381 ) Sweeney and Baugh 's line was strictly an intra-city, San Francisco - based service ; that is until California State Telegraph Company enfranchised on May 3, 1852 ; whereas, O.E. Allen and C. Burnham led the way to `` build a line from San Francisco to Marysville via San Jose, Stockton, and Sacramento. '' Delays to construction occurred until September 1853 ; but, ``... San Jose became the first station on the line when the wire arrived here on October 15. The line was completed when ( James ) Gamble 's northbound crew met a similar crew working southward from Marysville on October 24. '' The Bay Area had long been a major site of United States Navy research and technology. In 1909, Charles Herrold started the first radio station in the United States with regularly scheduled programming in San Jose. Later that year, Stanford University graduate Cyril Elwell purchased the U.S. patents for Poulsen arc radio transmission technology and founded the Federal Telegraph Corporation ( FTC ) in Palo Alto. Over the next decade, the FTC created the world 's first global radio communication system, and signed a contract with the Navy in 1912. In 1933, Air Base Sunnyvale, California, was commissioned by the United States Government for use as a Naval Air Station ( NAS ) to house the airship USS Macon in Hangar One. The station was renamed NAS Moffett Field, and between 1933 and 1947, U.S. Navy blimps were based there. A number of technology firms had set up shop in the area around Moffett Field to serve the Navy. When the Navy gave up its airship ambitions and moved most of its west coast operations to San Diego, the National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics ( NACA, forerunner of NASA ) took over portions of Moffett Field for aeronautics research. Many of the original companies stayed, while new ones moved in. The immediate area was soon filled with aerospace firms, such as Lockheed. Ham radio The Bay Area was an early center of ham radio with about 10 % of the operators in the United States. William Eitel, Jack McCullough, and Charles Litton, who together pioneered vacuum tube manufacturing in the Bay Area, were hobbyists with training in technology gained locally who participated in development of shortwave radio by the ham radio hobby. High frequency, and especially, Very high frequency, VHF, transmission in the 10 meter band, required higher quality power tubes than were manufactured by the consortium of RCA, Western Electric, General Electric, Westinghouse which controlled vacuum tube manufacture. Litton, founder of Litton Industries, pioneered manufacturing techniques which resulted in award of wartime contracts to manufacture transmitting tubes for radar to Eitel - McCullough, a San Bruno firm, which manufactured power - grid tubes for radio amateurs and aircraft radio equipment. Welfare capitalism A union organizing drive in 1939 -- 40 at Eitel - McCullough by the strong Bay Area labor movement was fought off by adoption of a strategy of welfare capitalism which included pensions and other generous benefits, profit sharing, and such extras as a medical clinic and a cafeteria. An atmosphere of cooperation and collaboration was established. Successes have been few and far between for union organizing drives by UE and others in subsequent years. U.S. response to Sputnik On October 4, 1957 the Soviet Union launched the first space satellite, Sputnik, which sparked fear that the Soviet Union was pulling ahead technologically. After President Eisenhower signed the National Aeronautics and Space Act ( NASA ), he turned to Fairchild Semiconductor, then the only company in the world that was able to make transistors. The president funded Fairchild 's project, which was highly successful. Stanford University Stanford University, its affiliates, and graduates have played a major role in the development of this area. Some examples include the work of Lee De Forest with his invention of a pioneering vacuum tube called the Audion and the oscilloscopes of Hewlett - Packard. A very powerful sense of regional solidarity accompanied the rise of Silicon Valley. From the 1890s, Stanford University 's leaders saw its mission as service to the West and shaped the school accordingly. At the same time, the perceived exploitation of the West at the hands of eastern interests fueled booster - like attempts to build self - sufficient local industry. Thus, regionalism helped align Stanford 's interests with those of the area 's high - tech firms for the first fifty years of Silicon Valley 's development. During the 1940s and 1950s, Frederick Terman, as Stanford 's dean of engineering and provost, encouraged faculty and graduates to start their own companies. He is credited with nurturing Hewlett - Packard, Varian Associates, and other high - tech firms, until what would become Silicon Valley grew up around the Stanford campus. Terman is often called `` the father of Silicon Valley ''. In 1956, William Shockley, the creator of the transistor, moved from New Jersey to Mountain View, California, to start Shockley Semiconductor Laboratory to live closer to his ailing mother in Palo Alto. Shockley 's work served as the basis for many electronic developments for decades. During 1955 -- 85, solid state technology research and development at Stanford University followed three waves of industrial innovation made possible by support from private corporations, mainly Bell Telephone Laboratories, Shockley Semiconductor, Fairchild Semiconductor, and Xerox PARC. In 1969, the Stanford Research Institute ( now SRI International ), operated one of the four original nodes that comprised ARPANET, predecessor to the Internet. Stanford industrial Park After World War II, universities were experiencing enormous demand due to returning students. To address the financial demands of Stanford 's growth requirements, and to provide local employment opportunities for graduating students, Frederick Terman proposed the leasing of Stanford 's lands for use as an office park, named the Stanford Industrial Park ( later Stanford Research Park ) in the year 1951. Leases were limited to high technology companies. Its first tenant was Varian Associates, founded by Stanford alumni in the 1930s to build military radar components. However, Terman also found venture capital for civilian technology start - ups. One of the major success stories was Hewlett - Packard. Founded in Packard 's garage by Stanford graduates William Hewlett and David Packard, Hewlett - Packard moved its offices into the Stanford Research Park shortly after 1953. In 1954, Stanford created the Honors Cooperative Program to allow full - time employees of the companies to pursue graduate degrees from the University on a part - time basis. The initial companies signed five - year agreements in which they would pay double the tuition for each student in order to cover the costs. Hewlett - Packard has become the largest personal computer manufacturer in the world, and transformed the home printing market when it released the first thermal drop - on - demand ink jet printer in 1984. Other early tenants included Eastman Kodak, General Electric, and Lockheed. The Silicon transistor In 1953, William Shockley left Bell Labs in a disagreement over the handling of the invention of the transistor. After returning to California Institute of Technology for a short while, Shockley moved to Mountain View, California, in 1956, and founded Shockley Semiconductor Laboratory. Unlike many other researchers who used germanium as the semiconductor material, Shockley believed that silicon was the better material for making transistors. Shockley intended to replace the current transistor with a new three - element design ( today known as the Shockley diode ), but the design was considerably more difficult to build than the `` simple '' transistor. In 1957, Shockley decided to end research on the silicon transistor. As a result of Shockley 's abusive management style, eight engineers left the company to form Fairchild Semiconductor ; Shockley referred to them as the `` traitorous eight ''. Two of the original employees of Fairchild Semiconductor, Robert Noyce and Gordon Moore, would go on to found Intel. Computer networking On April 23, 1963, J.C.R. Licklider, the first director of the Information Processing Techniques Office ( IPTO ) at The Pentagon 's ARPA issued an office memorandum addressed to Members and Affiliates of the Intergalactic Computer Network. It rescheduled a meeting in Palo Alto regarding his vision of a computer network which he imagined as an electronic commons open to all the main and essential medium of informational interaction for governments, institutions, corporations, and individuals. As head of IPTO from 1962 to 1964, `` Licklider initiated three of the most important developments in information technology : the creation of computer science departments at several major universities, time - sharing, and networking. '' By the late 1960s, his promotion of the concept had inspired a primitive version of his vision called ARPANET, which expanded into a network of networks in the 1970s that became the Internet. Immigration reform The Immigration and Nationality Act of 1965 and other factors such as the mass exodus by Vietnamese boat people resulted in significant immigration, particularly by Asians, Latinos, and Portuguese, to Silicon Valley where they contributed to both the high - tech and production workforce. The Asian - American population in Santa Clara County rose from 43,000 in 1970 to 430,000 in 2000. During the same period the Latino population grew to 24 % in the county and 30 % in San Jose. The African - American population in the county remained steady but grew slightly to about 5 %. Expansion of the H - 1B visa in 1990 also played a role. History ( 1971 and later ) Computer Chips Main article : Invention of the integrated circuit In April 1974, Intel released the Intel 8080, a `` computer on a chip '', `` the first truly usable microprocessor ''. A microprocessor incorporates the functions of a computer 's central processing unit ( CPU ) on a single integrated circuit ( IC ). Homebrew Computer Club Main article : Microcomputer revolution Invitation to first Homebrew Computer Club meeting ( sent to Steve Dompier ). The Homebrew Computer Club was an informal group of electronic enthusiasts and technically minded hobbyists who gathered to trade parts, circuits, and information pertaining to DIY construction of computing devices. It was started by Gordon French and Fred Moore who met at the Community Computer Center in Menlo Park. They both were interested in maintaining a regular, open forum for people to get together to work on making computers more accessible to everyone. The first meeting was held as of March 1975 at French 's garage in Menlo Park, San Mateo County, California ; which was on occasion of the arrival of the MITS Altair microcomputer, the first unit sent to the area for review by People 's Computer Company. Steve Wozniak and Steve Jobs credit that first meeting with inspiring them to design the original Apple I and ( successor ) Apple II computers. As a result, the first preview of the Apple I was given at the Homebrew Computer Club. Subsequent meetings were held at an auditorium at the Stanford Linear Accelerator Center. Venture capital firms By the early 1970s, there were many semiconductor companies in the area, computer firms using their devices, and programming and service companies serving both. Industrial space was plentiful and housing was still inexpensive. The growth was fueled by the emergence of the venture capital industry on Sand Hill Road, beginning with Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers and Sequoia Capital in 1972 ; the availability of venture capital exploded after the successful $1.3 billion IPO of Apple Computer in December 1980. Silicon Vally Venture Capital investment Media In 1980, Intelligent Machines Journal - a hobbyist journal - changed its name to InfoWorld, and, with offices in Palo Alto, began covering the explosive emergence of the microcomputer industry in the valley. Software Although semiconductors are still a major component of the area 's economy, Silicon Valley has been most famous in recent years for innovations in software and Internet services. Silicon Valley has significantly influenced computer operating systems, software, and user interfaces. Using money from NASA, the US Air Force, and ARPA, Doug Engelbart invented the mouse and hypertext - based collaboration tools in the mid-1960s and 1970s while at Stanford Research Institute ( now SRI International ), first publicly demonstrated in 1968 in what is now known as The Mother of All Demos. Engelbart 's Augmentation Research Center at SRI was also involved in launching the ARPANET ( precursor to the Internet ) and starting the Network Information Center ( now InterNIC ). Xerox hired some of Engelbart 's best researchers beginning in the early 1970s. In turn, in the 1970s and 1980s, Xerox 's Palo Alto Research Center ( PARC ) played a pivotal role in object - oriented programming, graphical user interfaces ( GUIs ), Ethernet, PostScript, and laser printers. While Xerox marketed equipment using its technologies, for the most part its technologies flourished elsewhere. The diaspora of Xerox inventions led directly to 3Com and Adobe Systems, and indirectly to Cisco, Apple Computer, and Microsoft. Apple 's Macintosh GUI was largely a result of Steve Jobs ' visit to PARC and the subsequent hiring of key personnel. Cisco 's impetus stemmed from the need to route a variety of protocols over Stanford 's campus Ethernet. The Internet Commercial use of the Internet became practical and grew slowly throughout the early 1990s. In 1995, commercial use of the Internet grew substantially and the initial wave of internet startups, Amazon.com, eBay, and the predecessor to Craigslist began operations. Internet bubble Silicon Valley is generally considered to have been the center of the dot - com bubble, which started in the mid-1990s and collapsed after the NASDAQ stock market began to decline dramatically in April 2000. During the bubble era, real estate prices reached unprecedented levels. For a brief time, Sand Hill Road was home to the most expensive commercial real estate in the world, and the booming economy resulted in severe traffic congestion. Early 21st Century After the dot - com crash, Silicon Valley continues to maintain its status as one of the top research and development centers in the world. A 2006 The Wall Street Journal story found that 12 of the 20 most inventive towns in America were in California, and 10 of those were in Silicon Valley. San Jose led the list with 3,867 utility patents filed in 2005, and number two was Sunnyvale, at 1,881 utility patents. Silicon Valley is also home to a significant number of `` Unicorn '' ventures, referring to startup companies whose valuation has exceeded $1 billion dollars. Economy Apple Park in Cupertino Googleplex in Mountain View Cisco Systems in San Jose Intel in Santa Clara Overview Silicon Valley has a social and business ethos that supports innovation and entrepreneurship. Attempts to create `` Silicon Valleys '' in environments where disruptive innovation does not go over well have a poor track record. The San Francisco Bay Area has the largest concentration of high - tech companies in the United States, at 387,000 high - tech jobs, of which Silicon Valley accounts for 225,300 high - tech jobs. Silicon Valley has the highest concentration of high - tech workers of any metropolitan area, with 285.9 out of every 1,000 private - sector workers. Silicon Valley has the highest average high - tech salary in the United States at $144,800. Largely a result of the high technology sector, the San Jose - Sunnyvale - Santa Clara, CA Metropolitan Statistical Area has the most millionaires and the most billionaires in the United States per capita. The region is the biggest high - tech manufacturing center in the United States. The unemployment rate of the region was 9.4 % in January 2009, up from 7.8 % in the previous month. Silicon Valley received 41 % of all U.S. venture investment in 2011, and 46 % in 2012. More traditional industries also recognize the potential of high - tech development, and several car manufacturers have opened offices in Silicon Valley to capitalize on its entrepreneurial ecosystem. Oracle in Redwood City Adobe World Headquarters in Downtown San Jose Netflix in Los Gatos Manufacture of transistors is, or was, the core industry in Silicon Valley. The production workforce was for the most part composed of Asian and Latina immigrants who were paid low wages and worked in hazardous conditions due to the chemicals used in the manufacture of integrated circuits. Technical, engineering, design, and administrative staffs were in large part well compensated. Silicon Valley has a severe housing shortage, caused by the market imbalance between jobs created and housing units built : from 2010 to 2015, many more jobs have been created than housing units built. ( 400,000 jobs, 60,000 housing units ) This shortage has driven home prices extremely high, far out of the range of production workers. As of 2016 a two - bedroom apartment rented for about $2,500 while the median home price was about $1 million. The Financial Post called Silicon Valley the most expensive U.S. housing region. Homelessness is a problem with housing beyond the reach of middle - income residents ; there is little shelter space other than in San Jose which, as of 2015, was making an effort to develop shelters by renovating old hotels. Notable companies Facebook in Menlo Park Tesla Motors in Palo Alto Hewlett - Packard in Palo Alto Paypal in San Jose Yahoo ! in Sunnyvale See also : Category : Companies based in Silicon Valley Thousands of high technology companies are headquartered in Silicon Valley. Among those, the following 39 are in the Fortune 1000 : Adobe Systems Advanced Micro Devices ( AMD ) Agilent Technologies Alphabet Inc. ( formerly Google Inc. ) Apple Inc. Applied Materials Cisco Systems eBay Electronic Arts Facebook Hewlett Packard Enterprise HP Inc. Intel Intuit Juniper Networks KLA Tencor Lam Research LSI Logic Maxim Integrated Products NetApp Netflix Nvidia Oracle Corporation Salesforce.com Sanmina - SCI Symantec Tesla, Inc. Visa Inc. Western Digital Corporation Xilinx Additional notable companies headquartered ( or with a significant presence ) in Silicon Valley include ( some defunct or subsumed ) : 3Com ( acquired by Hewlett - Packard ) 8x8 Actel Actuate Corporation Adaptec Aeria Games and Entertainment Akamai Technologies ( HQ in Cambridge, Massachusetts ) Altera Amazon.com 's A9.com Amazon. com 's Lab126.com Amdahl Anritsu AstraQom Asus ( headquartered in Taipei, Taiwan ) Atari Atmel Broadcom ( headquartered in Irvine, California ) Brocade Communications Systems ( acquired by Broadcom and its subsidiary LSI Corporation ) BEA Systems ( acquired by Oracle Corporation ) Cadence Design Systems Cypress Semiconductor Dell ( headquartered in Round Rock, Texas ) EMC Corporation ( headquartered in Hopkinton, Massachusetts ) Extreme Networks E * TRADE ( headquartered in New York, NY ) Fairchild Semiconductor Flex ( formally Flextronics ) Foundry Networks Fujitsu ( headquartered in Tokyo, Japan ) Geeknet ( Slashdot ) GoPro Groupon ( headquartered in Chicago, IL ) Harmonic, Inc. HCL Technologies ( headquartered in Noida, India ) Hitachi Data Systems Hitachi Global Storage Technologies IBM Almaden Research Center ( headquartered in Armonk, New York ) IDEO Infosys ( headquartered in Bangalore, India ) Informatica Intuitive Surgical LinkedIn ( acquired by Microsoft ) Logitech Lucasfilm Marvell Semiconductors ( headquartered in Hamilton, Bermuda ) Maxtor ( acquired by Seagate ) McAfee ( acquired by Intel ) Memorex ( acquired by Imation and moved to Cerritos, California ) MetricStream Micron Technology ( headquartered in Boise, Idaho ) Microsoft ( headquartered in Redmond, Washington ) Mozilla Foundation Move, Inc. National Semiconductor ( acquired by Texas Instruments ) Nokia ( headquartered in Espoo, Finland ) Nokia Solutions and Networks ( headquartered in Espoo, Finland ) NXP Semiconductors Nook ( subsidiary of Barnes & Noble ) Olivetti ( headquartered in Ivrea, Italy ) Opera Software ( headquartered in Oslo, Norway ) Palm, Inc. ( acquired by Hewlett - Packard ) Panasonic ( headquartered in Osaka, Japan ) PARC PayPal ( it has been demerged from eBay ) Pixar Playdom PlayPhone Qualcomm, Inc. ( HQ in San Diego, CA ) Quanta Computer Quantcast Quora Rambus Riverbed Technology ( owned by Thoma Bravo, Teachers Private Capital, and Riverbed Holdings, Inc. ) Roku, Inc. RSA Security ( acquired by EMC ) Samsung Electronics ( headquartered in Suwon, South Korea ) Samsung Research America ( headquartered in Suwon, South Korea ) SanDisk ( acquired by Western Digital ) SAP SE ( headquartered in Walldorf, Germany ) Siemens ( headquartered in Berlin and Munich, Germany ) SolarCity Sony ( headquartered in Tokyo, Japan ) Sony Mobile Communications Sony Interactive Entertainment Square, Inc. SRI International Sun Microsystems ( acquired by Oracle Corporation ) SunPower SurveyMonkey Synopsys Inc. Tata Consultancy Services ( headquartered in Mumbai, India ) TIBCO Software TiVo TSMC Twitter Uber Verifone VeriSign Veritas Software ( split off from Symantec ) VMware ( acquired by Dell Technologies ) WebEx ( acquired by Cisco Systems ) @ WalmartLabs YouTube ( acquired by Google ) Yelp, Inc. Zynga Silicon Valley is also home to the high - tech superstore retail chain Fry 's Electronics. Notable government facilities Moffett Federal Airfield NASA Ames Research Center ( Located inside Moffett ) Onizuka Air Force Station ( Closed 2010 ) SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory VA Palo Alto Hospital Demographics Atherton is the 1st most expensive place to live in the United States. Los Altos is the 3rd most expensive zip code in the United States. Palo Alto is the 5th most educated city and the 5th most expensive zip code in the United States. Morgan Hill is the 17th most expensive place to live in the United States. Los Gatos is the 33rd wealthiest city in the United States. Saratoga is the 16th most educated and the 8th wealthiest city in the United States. Depending on what geographic regions are included in the meaning of the term, the population of Silicon Valley is between 3.5 and 4 million. A 1999 study by AnnaLee Saxenian for the Public Policy Institute of California reported that a third of Silicon Valley scientists and engineers were immigrants and that nearly a quarter of Silicon Valley 's high - technology firms since 1980 were run by Chinese ( 17 percent ) or Indian CEOs ( 7 percent ). There is a stratum of well - compensated technical employees and managers, including 10s of thousands of `` single - digit millionaires. '' This income and range of assets will support a middle - class lifestyle in Silicon Valley. Diversity Exotic cars outside the Hotel Valencia, in Santana Row, San Jose. See also : Occupational inequality and Sexism in the technology industry In November 2006, the University of California, Davis released a report analyzing business leadership by women within the state. The report showed that although 103 of the 400 largest public companies headquartered in California were located in Santa Clara County ( the most of all counties ), only 8.8 % of Silicon Valley companies had women CEOs. This was the lowest percentage in the state. ( San Francisco County had 19.2 % and Marin County had 18.5 %. ) Silicon Valley tech leadership positions are occupied almost exclusively by men. This is also represented in the number of new companies founded by women as well as the number of women - lead startups that receive venture capital funding. Wadhwa said he believes that a contributing factor is a lack of parental encouragement to study science and engineering. He also cited a lack of women role models and noted that most famous tech leaders -- like Bill Gates, Steve Jobs, and Mark Zuckerberg -- are men. In 2014, tech companies Google, Yahoo !, Facebook, Apple, and others, released corporate transparency reports that offered detailed employee breakdowns. In May, Google said 17 % of its tech employees worldwide were women, and, in the U.S., 1 % of its tech workers were black and 2 % were Hispanic. June 2014 brought reports from Yahoo ! and Facebook. Yahoo ! said that 15 % of its tech jobs were held by women, 2 % of its tech employees were black and 4 % Hispanic. Facebook reported that 15 % of its tech workforce was female, and 3 % was Hispanic and 1 % was black. In August, Apple reported that 80 % of its global tech staff was male and that, in the U.S., 54 % of its tech jobs were staffed by Caucasians and 23 % by Asians. Soon after, USA Today published an article about Silicon Valley 's lack of tech - industry diversity, pointing out that it is largely white or Asian, and male. `` Blacks and Hispanics are largely absent, '' it reported, `` and women are underrepresented in Silicon Valley -- from giant companies to start - ups to venture capital firms. '' Civil rights activist Jesse Jackson said of improving diversity in the tech industry, `` This is the next step in the civil rights movement '' while T.J. Rodgers has argued against Jackson 's assertions. As of October 2014, some high - profile Silicon Valley firms were working actively to prepare and recruit women. Bloomberg reported that Apple, Facebook, Google, and Microsoft attended the 20th annual Grace Hopper Celebration of Women in Computing conference to actively recruit and potentially hire female engineers and technology experts. The same month, the second annual Platform Summit was held to discuss increasing racial and gender diversity in tech. As of April 2015 experienced women were engaged in creation of venture capital firms which leveraged women 's perspectives in funding of startups. After UC Davis published its Study of California Women Business Leaders in November 2006, some San Jose Mercury News readers dismissed the possibility that sexism contributed in making Silicon Valley 's leadership gender gap the highest in the state. A January 2015 issue of Newsweek magazine featured an article detailing reports of sexism and misogyny in Silicon Valley. The article 's author, Nina Burleigh, asked, `` Where were all these offended people when women like Heidi Roizen published accounts of having a venture capitalist stick her hand in his pants under a table while a deal was being discussed ? '' Silicon Valley firms ' board of directors are composed of 15.7 % women compared with 20.9 % in the S&P 100. The 2012 lawsuit Pao v. Kleiner Perkins was filed in San Francisco County Superior Court by executive Ellen Pao for gender discrimination against her employer, Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers. The case went to trial in February 2015. On March 27, 2015 the jury found in favor of Kleiner Perkins on all counts. Nevertheless, the case, which had wide press coverage, resulted in major advances in consciousness of gender discrimination on the part of venture capital and technology firms and their women employees. Two other cases have been filed against Facebook and Twitter. Schools Funding for public schools in upscale Silicon Valley communities such as Woodside, California is often supplemented by grants from private foundations set up for that purpose and funded by local residents. Schools in less favorable demographics such as East Palo Alto, California must depend on state funding. Municipalities Map visualization of traditional Silicon Valley in red ( bottom ), San Francisco in maroon ( left ), and the Berkeley tech cluster in peach ( right ). The following Santa Clara County cities are traditionally considered to be in Silicon Valley ( in alphabetical order ) : Campbell Cupertino Los Altos Los Altos Hills Los Gatos Milpitas Monte Sereno Morgan Hill Mountain View Palo Alto San Jose Santa Clara Saratoga Sunnyvale The geographical boundaries of Silicon Valley have changed over the years, traditionally Silicon Valley is known as Santa Clara County, southern San Mateo County and southern Alameda county. However, over the years this geographical area has been expanded to include San Francisco County, Contra Costa County, and the northern parts of Alameda County and San Mateo County, this shift has occurred due to the expansion in the local economy and the development of new technologies. The United States Department of Labor 's Quarterly Census of Employment and Wages ( QCEW ) program defined Silicon Valley as the counties of Alameda, Contra Costa, San Francisco, San Mateo, Santa Clara, and Santa Cruz. In 2015, MIT researchers developed a novel method for measuring which towns are home to startups with higher growth potential and this defines Silicon Valley to center on the municipalities of Menlo Park, Mountain View, Palo Alto, and Sunnyvale. Higher Education Stanford University, 20 mi ( 30 km ) outside of San Jose, is one of the top universities in the world. San José State University is the oldest public university on the West Coast and one of the largest feeder schools for Silicon Valley. Santa Clara University is ranked as one of the best universities in the Western United States by U.S. News & World Report. The Art Institute of California -- Sunnyvale California College of the Arts Carnegie Mellon University ( Silicon Valley campus ) California State University, East Bay, Hayward Cañada College Chabot College Cogswell Polytechnical College College of San Mateo De Anza College DeVry University Draper University Evergreen Valley College Foothill College Gavilan College Golden Gate University ( Silicon Valley Campus ) Hult International Business School International Culinary Center International Technological University John F. Kennedy University ( Campbell Campus ) Lincoln Law School of San Jose Menlo College Mills College Minerva Schools at KGI Mission College National University San Jose Campus Northwestern Polytechnic University ( Fremont ) Notre Dame de Namur University Ohlone College Peralta Colleges Saint Mary 's College of California San Jose City College San José State University San Francisco State University Santa Clara University Silicon Valley University Singularity University Skyline College Stanford University University of California, Berkeley University of California, Santa Cruz, Silicon Valley Campus University of California, San Francisco University of San Francisco South Bay Campus West Valley College Culture See also : List of attractions in Silicon Valley The San Jose Museum of Art ( top ), The Tech Museum of Innovation ( middle ), both in San Jose, and the Computer History Museum, in Mountain View. The City National Civic ( top ) and the San Jose Center for the Performing Arts ( bottom ). The 2017 Apple Worldwide Developers Conference & Facebook F8 2017, at the San Jose Convention Center. Silicon Valley 's first internationally known art gallery, Pace Art and Technology Gallery in Menlo Park, opened on February 6, 2016. In 1928, the Allied Arts Guild was formed in Menlo Park and is a complex of artist studios, shops, restaurant, and gardens. Museums Burlingame Museum of PEZ Memorabilia, Computer History Museum, Children 's Discovery Museum of San Jose, CuriOdyssey, De Saisset Museum at Santa Clara University, Filoli Estate, Forbes Mill, Hiller Aviation Museum, the HP Garage, the Intel Museum, Iris & B. Gerald Cantor Center for Visual Arts at Stanford University, Japanese American Museum of San Jose, Los Altos History Museum, Moffett Field Historical Society Museum, Museum of American Heritage, Palo Alto Art Center, Palo Alto Junior Museum and Zoo, Portuguese Historical Museum, Rosicrucian Egyptian Museum, San Mateo County History Museum, San Jose Museum of Art, San Jose Museum of Quilts & Textiles Sunnyvale Heritage Park Museum, The Tech Museum of Innovation, Viet Museum, Winchester Mystery House, Performing arts Opera San José Ballet San Jose Symphony Silicon Valley San Jose Center for the Performing Arts Broadway San Jose San Jose Repertory Theatre San Jose Youth Symphony San Jose Improv SjDANCEco Broadway by the Bay, Redwood City TheatreWorks Theatre Company, Palo Alto and Mountain View Events Apple Worldwide Developers Conference Facebook F8 BayCon, Santa Clara Christmas in the Park, downtown San Jose Cinequest Film Festival, multiple venues FanimeCon, downtown San Jose LiveStrong Challenge bike race, San Jose Los Altos Art and Wine Festival, Los Altos Mountain View Art and Wine Festival, Mountain View Palo Alto Festival of the Arts, Palo Alto San Francisco International Asian American Film Festival, downtown San Jose San Jose Jazz Festival, downtown San Jose Stanford Jazz Festival, Stanford University Media Local and national media cover Silicon Valley and its companies. CNN, The Wall Street Journal, and Bloomberg News operate Silicon Valley bureaus out of Palo Alto. Public broadcaster KQED ( TV ) and KQED - FM, as well as the Bay Area 's local ABC station KGO - TV, operate bureaus in San Jose. KNTV, NBC 's local Bay Area affiliate `` NBC Bay Area '', is located in San Jose. Produced from this location is the nationally distributed TV Show `` Tech Now '' as well as the CNBC Silicon Valley bureau. San Jose - based media serving Silicon Valley include the San Jose Mercury News daily and the Metro Silicon Valley weekly. Specialty media include El Observador and the San Jose / Silicon Valley Business Journal. Most of the Bay Area 's other major TV stations, newspapers, and media operate in San Francisco or Oakland. Patch.com operates various web portals, providing local news, discussion and events for residents of Silicon Valley. Mountain View has a public nonprofit station, KMVT - 15. KMVT - 15 's shows include Silicon Valley Education News ( EdNews ) - Edward Tico Producer. Cultural references Some appearances in media, in order by release date : The Maltese Falcon -- 1941 movie starring Humphrey Bogart and Mary Astor, she visits Sam Spade 's office in Burlingame A View to a Kill -- 1985 James Bond movie Dangerous Minds -- 1995 movie about a retired U.S. Marine LouAnne Johnson, who took up a teaching position at Carlmont High School in Belmont, California Triumph of the Nerds : The Rise of Accidental Empires -- 1996 documentary Felicity -- 1998 -- 2002 TV series, Felicity Porter grows up in Palo Alto Pirates of Silicon Valley -- 1999 movie House of Sand and Fog -- 2003 movie, an unclear Bay Area coastal location in movie, filmed in San Mateo County Knight Rider -- 2008 made - for - television movie Haunting of Winchester House -- 2009 movie The Social Network -- 2010 movie Startups Silicon Valley -- reality TV series, debuted 2012 on Bravo Betas -- TV series, debuted 2013 on Amazon Video Jobs -- 2013 movie The Internship -- 2013 film about working at Google Silicon Valley -- 2014 American sitcom from HBO Watch Dogs 2 -- 2016 video game developed by Ubisoft See also San Francisco Bay Area portal See also : the categories Companies based in Silicon Valley, Silicon Valley people, and Tourist attractions in Silicon Valley. List of attractions in Silicon Valley List of places with `` Silicon '' names around the world List of research parks around the world List of technology centers around the world Mega-Site, a type of land development by private developers, universities, or governments to promote business clusters Silicon Hills STEM fields Tech Valley References Jump up ^ Silicon Valley Business Journal -- San Jose Area has World 's Third - Highest GDP Per Capita, Brookings Says Jump up ^ `` Monthly employment continues upward climb ''. Silicon Valley Index. Archived from the original on September 24, 2013. Retrieved September 24, 2013. ^ Jump up to : Sturgeon, Timothy J. ( 2000 ). `` How Silicon Valley Came to Be ''. In Kenney, Martin. Understanding Silicon Valley : The Anatomy of an Entrepreneurial Region. Stanford University. ISBN 978 - 0 - 8047 - 3734 - 0. Jump up ^ Uskali, T., & Nordfors, D. ( 23 May 2007 ). The role of journalism in creating the metaphor of Silicon Valley. 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Making Silicon Valley : Innovation and the Growth of High Tech, 1930 -- 1970 ( trade paperback ) format = requires url = ( help ). The MIT Press. pp. 13 -- 40. ISBN 978 - 0 - 262 - 62211 - 0. Jump up ^ Christophe Lécuyer ( August 24, 2007 ). Making Silicon Valley : Innovation and the Growth of High Tech, 1930 -- 1970 ( trade paperback ) format = requires url = ( help ). The MIT Press. pp. 40, 41. ISBN 978 - 0 - 262 - 62211 - 0. Jump up ^ David Bacon ( January 17, 1993 ). `` Silicon Valley On Strike ! Immigrants in Electronics Protest Growing Sweat - Shop Conditions ''. dbacon.igc.org. Archived from the original on March 3, 2016. Retrieved February 3, 2015. Jump up ^ David Bacon ( March 2, 2011 ). `` Up Against the Open Shop -- the Hidden Story of Silicon Valley 's High - Tech Workers ''. www.truth-out.org. Truth - Out. Archived from the original on February 3, 2015. Retrieved February 3, 2015. We 're not looking for someone to represent employees Jump up ^ `` Timeline. Silicon Valley. 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Jump up ^ Markoff, John ( January 13, 2008 ). `` Two Views of Innovation, Colliding in Washington ''. The New York Times. Archived from the original on January 1, 2016. Retrieved December 7, 2014. The co-inventor of the transistor and the founder of the valley 's first chip company, William Shockley, moved to Palo Alto, Calif., because his mother lived there... Jump up ^ Christophe Lécuyer, `` What Do Universities Really Owe Industry ? The Case of Solid State Electronics at Stanford, '' Minerva : a Review of Science, Learning & Policy 2005 43 ( 1 ) : 51 -- 71 Jump up ^ `` History of Computing Industrial Era 1984 -- 1985 ''. thocp.net. Archived from the original on April 28, 2015. Retrieved April 19, 2015. Jump up ^ `` The Stanford Research Park : The Engine of Silicon Valley ''. PaloAltoHistory.com. Archived from the original on March 29, 2014. Retrieved March 29, 2014. Jump up ^ Goodheart, Adam ( July 2, 2006 ). `` 10 Days That Changed History ''. The New York Times. 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Broadway. p. 22. ISBN 978 - 0 - 7679 - 1503 - 8. ^ Jump up to : `` Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency ( DARPA ) ( United States Government ) ''. Encyclopædia Britannica. Encyclopædia Britannica, Inc. Archived from the original on January 11, 2014. Retrieved January 11, 2014. Jump up ^ Glenda Matthews ( November 20, 2002 ). `` 5. `` New Immigrants and Silicon Valley : Struggles, Successes, and Transformations '' ``. Silicon Valley, Women, and the California Dream : Gender, Class, and Opportunity in the Twentieth Century ( trade paperback ) ( 1 ed. ). Stanford, California : Stanford University Press. pp. 147 -- 182. ISBN 978 - 0 - 8047 - 4796 - 7. Archived from the original on January 16, 2015. Retrieved January 16, 2015. Jump up ^ Glenda Matthews ( November 20, 2002 ). Silicon Valley, Women, and the California Dream : Gender, Class, and Opportunity in the Twentieth Century ( trade paperback ) ( 1 ed. ). Stanford, California : Stanford University Press. p. 150. 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Jump up ^ `` Homebrew And How The Apple Came To Be ''. atariarchives.org. Archived from the original on April 7, 2015. Retrieved April 19, 2015. Jump up ^ Markoff, John ( 2006 ) ( 2005 ). What the Dormouse Said : How the Sixties Counterculture Shaped the Personal Computer Industry. Penguin Books. ISBN 978 - 0 - 14 - 303676 - 0. Jump up ^ Wozniak, Steve ( 2006 ). iWoz. W.W. Norton & Company. p. 150. ISBN 978 - 0 - 393 - 33043 - 4. After my first meeting, I started designing the computer that would later be known as the Apple I. It was that inspiring. Jump up ^ Freiberger, Paul ; Swaine, Michael ( 2000 ) ( 1984 ). Fire in the Valley : The Making of the Personal Computer. McGraw - Hill. ISBN 978 - 0 - 07 - 135895 - 8. Jump up ^ John Markoff ( September 1999 ). Foreword, Fire in the Valley ( trade paperback ) format = requires url = ( help ) ( Updated ed. ). McGraw - Hill. pp. xi -- xiii. ISBN 0 - 07 - 135892 - 7. Jump up ^ Graphical User Interface ( GUI ) from apple-history.com Jump up ^ W. Josephujjwal sarkar Campbell ( January 2, 2015 ). `` The Year of the Internet ''. 1995 : The Year the Future Began ( hardcover ) format = requires url = ( help ). University of California Press. ISBN 978 - 0 - 520 - 27399 - 3. Jump up ^ Reed Albergotti, `` The Most Inventive Towns in America '', Archived December 3, 2017, at the Wayback Machine. Wall Street Journal, 22 -- 23 July 2006, P1. Jump up ^ Ibid. Jump up ^ `` The Unicorn List ''. Fortune. January 22, 2015. Archived from the original on April 11, 2015. Retrieved April 6, 2015. Jump up ^ James B. Stewart ( June 18, 2015 ). `` A Fearless Culture Fuels U.S. Tech Giants ''. The New York Times. Archived from the original on June 19, 2015. Retrieved June 19, 2015. Europeans are also much less receptive to the kind of truly disruptive innovation represented by a Google or a Facebook Jump up ^ `` Cybercities 2008 : An Overview of the High - Technology Industry in the Nation 's Top 60 Cities ''. aeanet.org. Retrieved 19 April 2015. Jump up ^ `` America 's Greediest Cities ''. Forbes. December 3, 2007. Archived from the original on July 29, 2017. Jump up ^ Albanesius, Chloe ( June 24, 2008 ). `` AeA Study Reveals Where the Tech Jobs Are ''. PC Magazine. Archived from the original on January 12, 2018. Jump up ^ Pimentel, Benjamin. `` Silicon Valley and N.Y. still top tech rankings ''. MarketWatch. Archived from the original on December 10, 2008. Retrieved April 19, 2015. Jump up ^ `` Silicon Valley unemployment rate jumps to 9.4 percent ''. mercurynews.com. Archived from the original on November 5, 2014. Retrieved April 19, 2015. Jump up ^ `` Venture Capital Survey Silicon Valley Fourth Quarter 2011 ''. Fenwick.com. Archived from the original on May 14, 2013. Retrieved July 8, 2013. Jump up ^ `` Porsche lands in Silicon Valley to develop sportscars of the future ''. IBI. May 8, 2017. Archived from the original on May 13, 2017. Retrieved May 8, 2017. Carmakers who have recently expanded to Silicon Valley include Volkswagen, Hyundai, General Motors, Ford, Honda, Toyota, BMW, Nissan and Mercedes - Benz. Jump up ^ `` Production Occupations ( Major Group ) ''. bls.gov. Bureau of Labor Statistics. May 2014. Archived from the original on March 20, 2015. Retrieved April 25, 2015. Jump up ^ Glenda Matthews ( November 20, 2002 ). Silicon Valley, Women, and the California Dream : Gender, Class, and Opportunity in the Twentieth Century ( trade paperback ) ( 1 ed. ). Stanford, California : Stanford University Press. pp. 154 -- 56. ISBN 978 - 0 - 8047 - 4796 - 7. Archived from the original on January 16, 2015. Retrieved January 16, 2015. Jump up ^ `` Occupational Employment Statistics Semiconductor and Other Electronic Component Manufacturing ''. bls.gov. Bureau of Labor Statistics. May 2014. Archived from the original on May 5, 2015. Retrieved April 25, 2015. ^ Jump up to : Eliot Brown ( June 7, 2016 ). `` Neighbors Clash in Silicon Valley Job growth far outstrips housing, creating an imbalance ; San Jose chafes at Santa Clara ''. The Wall Street Journal. Archived from the original on June 7, 2016. Retrieved June 7, 2016. Jump up ^ Glenda Matthews ( November 20, 2002 ). Silicon Valley, Women, and the California Dream : Gender, Class, and Opportunity in the Twentieth Century ( trade paperback ) ( 1 ed. ). Stanford, California : Stanford University Press. p. 233. ISBN 978 - 0 - 8047 - 4796 - 7. Archived from the original on January 16, 2015. Retrieved January 16, 2015. Jump up ^ `` Archived copy ''. Archived from the original on May 25, 2017. Retrieved October 14, 2017. Jump up ^ Monica Potts ( December 13, 2015 ). `` Dispossessed in the Land of Dreams : Those left behind by Silicon Valley 's technology boom struggle to stay in the place they call home ''. The New Republic. Archived from the original on December 14, 2015. Retrieved December 14, 2015. A 2013 census showed Santa Clara County having more than 7,000 homeless people, the fifth - highest homeless population per capita in the country and among the highest populations sleeping outside or in unsuitable shelters like vehicles. Jump up ^ Sharf, Samantha. `` Full List : America 's Most Expensive ZIP Codes 2017 ''. Forbes. Retrieved 2017 - 12 - 05. Jump up ^ Kron4 - Palo Alto Ranks No. 5 as Most Educated in the U.S. Jump up ^ Mercury News - Palo Alto, Atherton Crack Top 10 Priciest Zip Codes in US Jump up ^ Mercury News - Saratoga Among the Most Educated Small Towns in America Jump up ^ Top Wealthiest Cities in America Jump up ^ `` America 's Richest Zip Codes 2011 ''. Retrieved 2012 - 06 - 21. Jump up ^ Business Insider - Most Expensive Housing Markets 2014 Jump up ^ Saxenian, AnnaLee ( 1999 ). `` Silicon Valley 's New Immigrant Entrepreneurs '' ( PDF ). Public Policy Institute of California. Archived ( PDF ) from the original on January 31, 2016. Jump up ^ Gary Riflin ( August 5, 2007 ). `` In Silicon Valley, Millionaires Who Do n't Feel Rich ''. The New York Times. Archived from the original on June 5, 2015. Retrieved June 27, 2015. Silicon Valley is thick with those who might be called working - class millionaires Jump up ^ `` Women Missing From Decision - Making Roles in State Biz '' ( Press release ). UC Regents. November 16, 2006. Retrieved March 25, 2015. ^ Jump up to : Ellis, Katrina ( 2006 ). `` UC Davis Study of California Women Business Leaders '' ( PDF ). UC Regents. Archived ( PDF ) from the original on April 2, 2015. Retrieved March 25, 2015. Jump up ^ Zee, Samantha ( November 16, 2006 ). `` California, Silicon Valley Firms Lack Female Leaders ( Update1 ) ''. Bloomberg. Archived from the original on April 2, 2015. Retrieved March 25, 2015. ^ Jump up to : Wadhwa, Vivek ( November 9, 2011 ). `` Silicon Valley women are on the rise, but have far to go ''. Washington Post. Retrieved December 26, 2014. This is one of Silicon Valley 's most glaring faults : It is male - dominated. Jump up ^ Wadhwa, Vivek ( May 15, 2010 ). `` Fixing Societal Problems : It Starts With Mom and Dad ''. TechCrunch. AOL. Archived from the original on December 27, 2014. Retrieved December 26, 2014. Jump up ^ Musil, Steven ( May 28, 2014 ). `` Google discloses its diversity record and admits it 's not good ''. CNET. CBS Interactive. Archived from the original on March 4, 2016. Jump up ^ Levy, Karyne ( June 17, 2014 ). `` Yahoo 's Diversity Numbers Are Just As Terrible As The Rest Of The Tech Industry 's ''. Business Insider. Archived from the original on April 2, 2015. Retrieved March 24, 2015. Jump up ^ Williams, Maxine ( June 25, 2014 ). `` Building a More Diverse Facebook ''. Facebook. Archived from the original on March 23, 2015. Retrieved March 24, 2015. Jump up ^ `` Apple diversity report released ; Cook ' not satisfied with the numbers ' ''. CBS Interactive. Associated Press. August 13, 2014. Archived from the original on January 26, 2016. Jump up ^ Guynn, Jessica ; Weise, Elizabeth ( August 15, 2014 ). `` Lack of diversity could undercut Silicon Valley ''. USA Today. Archived from the original on April 17, 2015. Retrieved March 24, 2015. Jump up ^ Koch, Wendy ( August 15, 2014 ). `` Jesse Jackson : Tech diversity is next civil rights step ''. USA Today. Archived from the original on March 3, 2015. Retrieved March 24, 2015. Jump up ^ Burrows, Peter ( October 8, 2014 ). `` Gender Gap Draws Thousands From Google, Apple to Phoenix ''. Bloomberg Business. Bloomberg. Archived from the original on April 2, 2015. Retrieved March 24, 2015. Jump up ^ Porter, Jane ( October 29, 2014 ). `` Inside the Movement That 's Trying to Solve Silicon Valley 's Diversity Problem ''. Fast Company. Mansueto Ventures. Archived from the original on March 19, 2015. Retrieved March 24, 2015. Jump up ^ Claire Cain Miller ( April 1, 2015 ). `` Female - Run Venture Capital Funds Alter the Status Quo '' ( Dealbook blog ). The New York Times. Archived from the original on April 1, 2015. Retrieved April 2, 2015. `` We 're in the middle of a shifting trend where there are newly wealthy women putting their money to work, and similarly we 're starting to have a larger number of experienced investors, '' Jump up ^ Burleigh, Nina ( January 28, 2015 ). `` What Silicon Valley Thinks of Women ''. Newsweek. Archived from the original on March 21, 2015. Retrieved March 21, 2015. Jump up ^ Tam, Ruth ( January 30, 2015 ). `` Artist behind Newsweek cover : it 's not sexist, it depicts the ugliness of sexism ''. PBS NewsHour. Archived from the original on March 21, 2015. Retrieved March 21, 2015. Jump up ^ `` Ellen Pao gender discrimination trial grips Silicon Valley ''. TheGuardian.com. March 13, 2015. Archived from the original on June 17, 2016. Retrieved June 6, 2016. Jump up ^ Complaint of Ellen Pao Archived March 3, 2016, at the Wayback Machine. Jump up ^ Liz Gannes and Nellie Bowles ( March 27, 2015 ). `` Live : Ellen Pao Loses on All Claims in Historic Gender Discrimination Lawsuit Against Kleiner Perkins ''. Re / code. Archived from the original on March 27, 2015. Retrieved March 27, 2015. That 's the full verdict. No on all claims. Jump up ^ Sue Decker ( March 26, 2015 ). `` A Fish Is the Last to Discover Water : Impressions From the Ellen Pao Trial ''. Re / code. Archived from the original on March 27, 2015. Retrieved March 28, 2015. We may look back at this as a watershed moment -- regardless of how the very attentive jury comes out on their verdict. Jump up ^ Farhad Manjoo ( March 27, 2015 ). `` Ellen Pao Disrupts How Silicon Valley Does Business ''. The New York Times. Archived from the original on March 28, 2015. Retrieved March 28, 2015. Ms. Klein argued that the Kleiner trial would become a landmark case for women in the workplace, as consequential for corporate gender relations as Anita Hill 's accusations in 1991 of sexual harassment during the confirmation hearings of Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas Jump up ^ Streitfeld, David ( March 27, 2015 ). `` Ellen Pao Loses Silicon Valley Gender Bias Case Against Kleiner Perkins ''. The New York Times. Archived from the original on March 31, 2015. Retrieved April 1, 2015. In a sign that the struggle over the place of women in Silicon Valley is only beginning, gender discrimination suits have recently been filed against two prominent companies, Facebook and Twitter. Jump up ^ George Packer ( May 27, 2013 ). `` Change the World Silicon Valley transfers its slogans -- and its money -- to the realm of politics ''. The New Yorker. Archived from the original on July 29, 2015. Retrieved July 30, 2015. In wealthy districts, the public schools have essentially been privatized ; they insulate themselves from shortfalls in state funding with money raised by foundations they have set up for themselves. ^ Jump up to : O'Brien, Chris ( 2012 - 04 - 19 ). `` Welcome to the new and expanded Silicon Valley ''. The Mercury News. Retrieved 2018 - 04 - 10. After years of drawing a sharp circle that included Santa Clara County as well as southern San Mateo and Alameda counties, this newspaper is expanding the geographic boundaries that it considers to be part of Silicon Valley to include the five core Bay Area counties : Santa Clara, San Mateo, San Francisco, Alameda and Contra Costa. Jump up ^ Malone, Michael S. ( 2013 - 06 - 05 ). `` Silicon Valley 's Newest Address ? Look East ''. Forbes. Retrieved 2018 - 04 - 10. which contains Contra Costa County, has already had its Silicon Valley growth boom, fueled in large part by the dot.com bubble of the Nineties. Jump up ^ `` High - tech employment in Silicon Valley, 2001 and 2008 ''. U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. 2009 - 09 - 08. Retrieved 2018 - 04 - 10. In this analysis, Silicon Valley is defined as Alameda, Contra Costa, San Francisco, San Mateo, Santa Clara, and Santa Cruz counties, in California. Jump up ^ Stern, Scott, Guzman, Jorge. Nowcasting and Placecasting Growth Entrepreneurship Archived March 4, 2016, at the Wayback Machine... Jump up ^ `` Science Magazine : Sign In ''. sciencemag.org. Archived from the original on March 15, 2015. Retrieved April 19, 2015. Jump up ^ San Francisco CBS - San Jose State Alums Beat Out Elite School Grads For Tech Jobs Jump up ^ Bowles, Nellie ( February 6, 2016 ). `` The ' cultural desert ' of Silicon Valley finally gets its first serious art gallery ''. The Guardian. ISSN 0261 - 3077. Archived from the original on February 21, 2016. Retrieved February 21, 2016. Jump up ^ `` Barn Woodshop : Menlo Park furniture repair shop is a remnant of a bygone era ''. San Jose Mercury News. Archived from the original on March 10, 2016. Retrieved February 21, 2016. Jump up ^ `` Saturday : Allied Arts Guild holds open house ''. Almanac News. Archived from the original on March 7, 2016. Retrieved February 21, 2016. ^ Jump up to : `` 14 Sights You Must See In Silicon Valley ''. Business Insider. Archived from the original on March 20, 2016. Retrieved February 21, 2016. Jump up ^ `` Arts & Wine Festival ''. Downtown Los Altos. Retrieved 2017 - 11 - 03. Jump up ^ `` Events ''. Mountain View Downtown Guide. Retrieved 2016 - 02 - 22. Jump up ^ `` Festival of the Arts ''. Palo Alto Chamber of Commerce. Retrieved 2016 - 02 - 22. Jump up ^ `` Burlingame : Paradise on the Peninsula ''. SFGate. 1998. Archived from the original on April 12, 2016. Retrieved March 30, 2016. Jump up ^ `` Michelle Pfeiffer Acts With Class / ` Dangerous Minds ' uses teacher plot well ''. SFGate. 1996. Archived from the original on April 12, 2016. Retrieved March 30, 2016. Jump up ^ `` House of Sand and Fog ''. IMDB. Archived from the original on March 16, 2006. Retrieved March 30, 2006. Jump up ^ `` Start - Ups : Silicon Valley ''. IMDB. Archived from the original on March 24, 2016. Retrieved March 30, 2016. Jump up ^ `` Betas ''. IMDB. Archived from the original on April 3, 2016. Retrieved March 30, 2016. Further reading Books Bronson, Po ( 2013 ). The Nudist On The Lateshift : and Other Tales of Silicon Valley. Random House. ISBN 978 - 1 - 4481 - 8964 - 9. Cringely, Robert X. ( 1996 ) ( 1992 ). Accidental Empires : How the boys of Silicon Valley make their millions, battle foreign competition, and still ca n't get a date. HarperCollins. ISBN 978 - 0 - 88730 - 855 - 0. English - Lueck, June Anne ( 2002 ). Cultures@Silicon Valley. Stanford University Press. ISBN 978 - 0 - 8047 - 4429 - 4. Hayes, Dennis ( 1990 ) ( 1989 ). Behind the Silicon Curtain : The Seductions of Work in a Lonely Era. Black Rose Books. ISBN 978 - 0 - 921689 - 62 - 1. Kaplan, David A. ( 2000 ). The Silicon Boys : And Their Valleys Of Dreams. HarperCollins. ISBN 978 - 0 - 688 - 17906 - 9. Koepp, Rob. Clusters of Creativity : Enduring Lessons on Innovation and Entrepreneurship from Silicon Valley and Europe 's Silicon Fen. John Wiley & Sons. ISBN 978 - 0 - 470 - 85566 - 9. Lécuyer, Christophe Lécuyer ( 2006 ) ( 2005 ). Making Silicon Valley : Innovation and the Growth of High Tech, 1930 -- 1970. Chemical Heritage Foundation. ISBN 978 - 0 - 262 - 12281 - 8. Levy, Steven ( 2014 ) ( 1984 ). Hackers : Heroes of the Computer Revolution. O'Reilly Media. ISBN 978 - 1 - 4493 - 8839 - 3. O'Mara, Margaret Pugh ( 2015 ) ( 2004 ). Cities of Knowledge : Cold War Science and the Search for the Next Silicon Valley : Cold War Science and the Search for the Next Silicon Valley. Princeton University Press. ISBN 978 - 1 - 4008 - 6688 - 5. Pellow, David N ; Park, Lisa Sun - Hee ( 2002 ). The Silicon Valley of Dreams : Environmental Injustice, Immigrant Workers, and the High - tech Global Economy. New York University Press. ISBN 978 - 0 - 8147 - 6710 - 8. Saxenian, AnnaLee ( 1996 ). Regional Advantage : Culture and Competition in Silicon Valley and Route 128. Harvard University Press. ISBN 978 - 0 - 674 - 75340 - 2. Scoville, Thomas ( 2001 ). Silicon Follies ( Fiction ). Simon & Schuster. ISBN 978 - 0 - 7434 - 1945 - 1. Whiteley, Carol ; McLaughlin, John ( 2002 ). Technology, Entrepreneurs and Silicon Valley. Silicon Valley Historical Association. ISBN 0 - 9649217 - 1 - 5. Journals and newspapers Kantor, Jodi ( December 23, 2014 ). `` A Brand New World In Which Men Ruled ''. The New York Times. Koenig, Neil ( February 9, 2014 ). `` Next Silicon Valleys : How did California get it so right ? ''. BBC News. Malone, Michael S. ( January 30, 2015 ). `` The Purpose of Silicon Valley ''. MIT Technology Review. Norr, Henry ( December 27, 1999 ). `` Growth of a Silicon Empire ''. San Francisco Chronicle. Palmer, Barbara ( February 4, 2004 ). `` Red tile roofs in Bangalore : Stanford 's look copied in Silicon Valley and beyond ''. Stanford Report. Schulz, Thomas ( March 4, 2015 ). `` Tomorrowland : How Silicon Valley Shapes Our Future ''. Der Spiegel. Sturgeon, Timothy J. ( December 2000 ). `` Chapter Two : How Silicon Valley Came to Be '' ( PDF ). Industrial Performance Center. Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Williams, James C. ( December 2013 ). `` From White Gold to Silicon Chips : Hydraulic Technology, Electric Power and Silicon Valley ''. Social Science Information ( Abstract ). Sage Publications. 52 ( 4 ) : 558 -- 574. ( Subscription required for full text. ) Audiovisual Silicon Valley : A Five Part Series ( DVD ). Narrated by Leonard Nimoy. Silicon Valley Historical Association. 2012. `` A Weekend in Silicon Valley ''. The New York Times ( Slideshow ). August 27, 2010. Silicon Valley : A Five Part Series ( DVD ). Narrated by Leonard Nimoy. Silicon Valley Historical Association. 2012. External links Wikivoyage has a travel guide for Silicon Valley. Santa Clara County : California 's Historic Silicon Valley -- A National Park Service website Silicon Valley -- An American Experience documentary broadcast in 2013 Silicon Valley Cultures Project at the Wayback Machine ( archived December 20, 2007 ) from San Jose State University Silicon Valley Historical Association The Birth of Silicon Valley Silicon Valley Cities Campbell Cupertino East Palo Alto Fremont Los Altos Los Altos Hills Los Gatos Menlo Park Milpitas Morgan Hill Mountain View Newark Palo Alto Redwood City San Jose San Mateo Santa Clara Saratoga Sunnyvale Colleges and universities Carnegie Mellon Silicon Valley Cogswell Polytechnical College De Anza College Evergreen Valley College Foothill College International Technological University Menlo College Mission College Ohlone College Silicon Valley Technical Institute National Hispanic University Northwestern Polytechnic University San Jose City College San Jose State University Silicon Valley University Santa Clara University Stanford University University of California, Berkeley University of California, Santa Cruz Companies ( including subsidiaries and defunct companies ) 3Com Access Systems Americas Actuate Adaptec Adobe Systems AMD Agilent Technologies Altera Amdahl Ampex Apple Inc. Applied Materials Aricent Asus Atari Atmel Avaya BEA Systems Brocade BusinessObjects Capcom Cisco Systems Computer Literacy Bookshops Cypress Semiconductor eBay Electronic Arts Facebook Foundry Networks Fry 's Electronics Fujitsu Gaia Online Geeknet Google Hewlett - Packard HGST IETF Intel Internet Systems Consortium Intuit Juniper Networks Knight Ridder LinkedIn Logitech LSI Corporation Magellan Navigation Marvell Technology Group Maxtor McAfee Memorex Microsoft Mozilla Corporation National Semiconductor Netscape NetApp Netflix NeXT Nintendo of America Nortel Nvidia Opera Software OPPO Digital Oracle Corporation Palm, Inc. Palo Alto Networks PayPal Pinterest Playdom Rambus Redback Networks Reputation.com SAP SE SanDisk Silicon Graphics Silicon Image Solectron Sony Interactive Entertainment SRI International Sun Microsystems Symantec Symyx Taligent Tesla, Inc. TiVo Uber Verisign Veritas Technologies VMware Webex WhatsApp Xilinx Yahoo ! San Jose and Silicon Valley attractions Arboreta / Gardens Arizona Cactus Garden Chinese Cultural Garden Emma Prusch Farm Park Hakone Gardens Hollyhill Hummingbird Farm Japanese Friendship Garden Overfelt Gardens SJ Municipal Rose Garden Stanford Arboretum Villa Montalvo Arboretum Cultural American Musical Theatre of SJ Ballet San Jose Cathedral Basilica of St. Joseph Choral Project De Saisset Museum Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Library Gurdwara Sahib Ira F. Brilliant Center for Beethoven Studies Mexican Heritage Plaza Montalvo Arts Center Villa Montalvo Opera San José SJ City Hall SJ Flea Market SJ Improv SJ Museum of Art SJ Rep Theatre sjDANCEco Symphony Silicon Valley Triton Museum of Art Viet Museum Vivace Youth Chorus Event venues Avaya Stadium CEFCU Stadium City National Civic Levi 's Stadium PAL Stadium San Jose Center for the Performing Arts SAP Center at San Jose SC Convention Center Shoreline Amphitheatre SJ Convention Center SJ Municipal Stadium SJSU Event Center Arena Solar4America Ice Stanford Stadium Stevens Stadium Events BayCon Cinequest Film Festival FanimeCon Further Confusion LiveStrong Challenge SJ Holiday Parade SJ Jazz Festival Silicon Valley Comic Con Stanford Jazz Festival Christmas in the Park Historical Circle of Palms Hotel De Anza Hangar One History Park at Kelley Park HP Garage Japanese American Museum New Almaden Peralta Adobe Portuguese Historical Museum Rengstorff House Rosicrucian Egyptian Museum SJ Museum of Quilts & Textiles Winchester Mystery House Parks / Trails Almaden Quicksilver County Park Alum Rock Park Anderson Lake Bay Area Ridge Trail Calero Reservoir Castle Rock State Park Coyote -- Bear Park Ed Levin Park Grant Ranch County Park Guadalupe River Trail Henry W. Coe State Park Kelley Park Lake Cunningham Los Alamitos Creek Trail Los Gatos Creek Trail Plaza de César Chávez Rancho San Antonio Rosicrucian Park Sanborn County Park SF Bay Trail Shoreline Park Stevens Creek Trail Uvas Canyon Uvas Creek Preserve Uvas Reservoir Vasona Park Science / Tech / Education Children 's Discovery Museum Computer History Museum Googleplex Intel Museum Lick Observatory NASA Ames Exploration Center SJSU SCU Stanford The Tech Museum of Innovation Shopping Eastridge Great Mall Oakridge PruneYard San Antonio Santana Row Stanford Vallco Valley Fair Westgate Theme parks and tours Billy Jones Wildcat Railroad California 's Great America Gilroy Gardens Happy Hollow Park & Zoo Raging Waters Vineyards / Wineries Byington Vineyard J Lohr Vineyards and Wines Mountain Winery Picchetti Brothers Winery Savannah -- Chanelle Vineyards State of California Sacramento ( capital ) Topics Culture Food Music Myth Sports Demographics Earthquakes Economy Education Environment Geography Climate Ecology Flora Fauna Government Capitol Districts Governor Legislature Supreme Court Healthcare History Law National Historic Landmarks National Natural Landmarks NRHP listings Politics Congressional delegations Elections People Protected areas State Parks State Historic Landmarks Symbols Transportation Water Index of articles Regions Antelope Valley Big Sur California Coast Ranges Cascade Range Central California Central Coast Central Valley Channel Islands Coachella Valley Coastal California Conejo Valley Cucamonga Valley Death Valley East Bay ( SF Bay Area ) East County ( SD ) Eastern California Emerald Triangle Gold Country Great Basin Greater San Bernardino Inland Empire Klamath Basin Lake Tahoe Greater Los Angeles Los Angeles Basin Lost Coast Mojave Desert Mountain Empire North Bay ( SF ) North Coast North Coast ( SD ) Northern California Owens Valley Oxnard Plain Peninsular Ranges Pomona Valley Sacramento Valley Salinas Valley San Fernando Valley San Francisco Bay Area San Francisco Peninsula San Gabriel Valley San Joaquin Valley Santa Clara Valley Santa Clara River Valley Santa Clarita Valley Santa Ynez Valley Shasta Cascade Sierra Nevada Silicon Valley South Bay ( LA ) South Bay ( SD ) South Bay ( SF ) South Coast Southern Border Region Southern California Transverse Ranges Tri-Valley Victor Valley Wine Country Metro regions Metropolitan Fresno Los Angeles metropolitan area Greater Sacramento San Bernardino - Riverside metropolitan area San Francisco metropolitan area San Diego -- Tijuana Counties Alameda Alpine Amador Butte Calaveras Colusa Contra Costa Del Norte El Dorado Fresno Glenn Humboldt Imperial Inyo Kern Kings Lake Lassen Los Angeles Madera Marin Mariposa Mendocino Merced Modoc Mono Monterey Napa Nevada Orange Placer Plumas Riverside Sacramento San Benito San Bernardino San Diego San Francisco San Joaquin San Luis Obispo San Mateo Santa Barbara Santa Clara Santa Cruz Shasta Sierra Siskiyou Solano Sonoma Stanislaus Sutter Tehama Trinity Tulare Tuolumne Ventura Yolo Yuba Most populous cities Los Angeles San Diego San Jose San Francisco Fresno Sacramento Long Beach Oakland Bakersfield Anaheim The 100 most populous metropolitan statistical areas of the United States of America New York, NY Los Angeles, CA Chicago, IL Dallas, TX Houston, TX Washington, DC Philadelphia, PA Miami, FL Atlanta, GA Boston, MA San Francisco, CA Phoenix, AZ Riverside, CA Detroit, MI Seattle, WA Minneapolis, MN San Diego, CA Tampa, FL Denver, CO St. Louis, MO Baltimore, MD Charlotte, NC San Juan, PR Orlando, FL San Antonio, TX Portland, OR Pittsburgh, PA Sacramento, CA Cincinnati, OH Las Vegas, NV Kansas City, MO Austin, TX Columbus, OH Cleveland, OH Indianapolis, IN San Jose, CA Nashville, TN Virginia Beach, VA Providence, RI Milwaukee, WI Jacksonville, FL Memphis, TN Oklahoma City, OK Louisville, KY Richmond, VA New Orleans, LA Hartford, CT Raleigh, NC Birmingham, AL Buffalo, NY Salt Lake City, UT Rochester, NY Grand Rapids, MI Tucson, AZ Honolulu, HI Tulsa, OK Fresno, CA Bridgeport, CT Worcester, MA Albuquerque, NM Omaha, NE Albany, NY New Haven, CT Bakersfield, CA Knoxville, TN Greenville, SC Oxnard, CA El Paso, TX Allentown, PA Baton Rouge, LA McAllen, TX Dayton, OH Columbia, SC Greensboro, NC Sarasota, FL Little Rock, AR Stockton, CA Akron, OH Charleston, SC Colorado Springs, CO Syracuse, NY Winston - Salem, NC Cape Coral, FL Boise, ID Wichita, KS Springfield, MA Madison, WI Lakeland, FL Ogden, UT Toledo, OH Deltona, FL Des Moines, IA Jackson, MS Augusta, GA Scranton, PA Youngstown, OH Harrisburg, PA Provo, UT Palm Bay, FL Chattanooga, TN United States Census Bureau population estimates for July 1, 2012 Coordinates : 37 ° 24 ′ N 122 ° 00 ′ W ﻿ / ﻿ 37.4 ° N 122.0 ° W ﻿ / 37.4 ; - 122.0 GND : 4107751 - 9 VIAF : 247673436 Retrieved from `` https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Silicon_Valley&oldid=854321620 '' Categories : Silicon Valley Economic regions of California Geography of Santa Clara County, California High - technology business districts in the United States Information technology places Santa Clara County, California Science and technology in the San Francisco Bay Area Subregions of the San Francisco Bay Area Hidden categories : Pages using citations with format and no URL Webarchive template wayback links Use American English from July 2015 All Wikipedia articles written in American English Use mdy dates from July 2015 Articles with short description Infobox settlement pages with bad settlement type All articles with unsourced statements Articles with unsourced statements from June 2017 All articles with vague or ambiguous time Vague or ambiguous time from November 2017 Articles with unsourced statements from November 2017 Pages using div col with small parameter Coordinates on Wikidata Wikipedia articles with GND identifiers Wikipedia articles with VIAF identifiers Talk Contents About Wikipedia Wikivoyage Asturianu Azərbaycanca বাংলা Bân - lâm - gú Беларуская Беларуская ( тарашкевіца ) ‎ Български Bosanski Brezhoneg Català Čeština Dansk Deutsch Eesti Ελληνικά Español Esperanto Euskara فارسی Føroyskt Français Frysk Gaeilge Gĩkũyũ ગુજરાતી 客家 語 / Hak - kâ - ngî 한국어 Հայերեն हिन्दी Hrvatski Bahasa Indonesia Íslenska Italiano עברית ქართული Қазақша Latina Latviešu Lietuvių Magyar Македонски मराठी Bahasa Melayu မြန်မာဘာသာ Nederlands 日本 語 Norsk Occitan ਪੰਜਾਬੀ Polski Português Română Русский Саха тыла Scots Simple English Slovenčina Српски / srpski Srpskohrvatski / српскохрватски Suomi Svenska தமிழ் తెలుగు ไทย Türkçe Українська اردو Tiếng Việt Winaray 粵語 中文 63 more Edit links This page was last edited on 10 August 2018, at 13 : 38 ( UTC ). 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Question: when did the tech boom start in san francisco
Answer: Silicon Valley