But Silicon Valley did not achieve critical mass until the late 1970s and early 1980s, when Steve Jobs started Apple in a garage in Cupertino with the idea of making a computer ordinary people could use, and Gordon Moore, Robert Noyce and Andrew Grove started Intel in nearby Santa Clara to make the microchips that let computers process data much faster than almost anyone thought possible. Rapidly growing businesses are inherently unstable, but the Valley's enduring advantages have made it amazingly adaptable. Another is venture capital, widely available from innovation-minded San Francisco and the venture capitalists on Menlo Park s Sand Hill Road. A third, perhaps the greatest, is that Silicon Valley is the kind of place where smart young innovators like to live. People here were ahead of the rest of the nation in fighting for the environment, in favoring natural over processed foods, and in indulging in regular exercise.
Innovation extends even to government.
The 14th Congressional District coincides almost exactly with Silicon Valley. But as this kind of Republican has become rarer, Silicon Valley has become very Democratic. It took immediately to Clinton in 1992.