Welcome to The Valley
The Silicon Valley lies in the South Bay and the southern Peninsula of the San Francisco Bay Area. Once best known for its prune orchards, the area underwent explosive growth with the creation of the high-tech industry in the 1960s.
"Silicon Valley", first used by Don C. Hoefler, publisher of Microelectronics News, in his article titled "Silicon Valley USA" on January 11, 1971, has become synonymous with the center of high technology research and development. "Silicon" refers to the high concentration of semiconductor and computer-related industries in the area at the time. "Valley" refers to the Santa Clara Valley.
Despite the development of other high-tech economic centers throughout the United States and the world, Silicon Valley continues to be the leading hub for high-tech innovation and development, accounting for 1/3 of all of the venture capital investment in the United States. read more...
San Jose
San Jose is the third-largest city in California, and the county seat of Santa Clara County. It is located at the southern end of San Francisco Bay. The San Jose/Silicon Valley area is a major component of the greater San Francisco Bay, a region of 7.5 million people and the sixth largest metropolitan area (CSA) in the United States. San Jose was founded on November 29, 1777, as El Pueblo de San Jose de Guadalupe, the first town in the Spanish colony of Nueva California, which later became Alta California. read more...
Palo Alto
Palo Alto is a California charter city located in the northwest corner of Santa Clara County, in the San Francisco Bay Area of California. The city shares its borders with East Palo Alto, Mountain View, Los Altos, Los Altos Hills, Stanford, Portola Valley, and Menlo Park. It is named after a redwood tree called El Palo Alto. The city includes portions of Stanford University, is headquarters to a number of Silicon Valley high-technology companies, including Hewlett Packard, VMware, Tesla Motors, Ning, IDEO, Palantir Technologies, Facebook, and has served as an incubator to several other high-technology companies, such as Google, read more...
Mountain View
Mountain View is a city in Santa Clara County, in the San Francisco Bay Area of California. It is named for its views of the Santa Cruz Mountains. The city shares its borders with the cities of Palo Alto, Los Altos, and Sunnyvale, as well as Moffett Federal Airfield. read more...
Cupertino
Cupertino is a suburban city in Santa Clara County, California, directly west of San Jose on the western edge of the Santa Clara Valley with portions extending into the foothills of the Santa Cruz Mountains. The population was 58,302 at the time of the 2010 census. Forbes ranked it as one of the most educated small towns. It is best known as home to the worldwide headquarters of Apple Inc. read more...
Redwood City
Redwood City is a California charter city located on the San Francisco Peninsula in Northern California, approximately 27 miles south of San Francisco, and 24 miles north of San Jose. Redwood City is rich in history, from its earliest inhabitation by the Ohlone people, to its tradition as a port for lumber and other goods, to its place as the county seat of San Mateo County. read more...
Santa Clara
Santa Clara, founded in 1777 and incorporated in 1852, is a city in Santa Clara County, California. Santa Clara is located in the center of Silicon Valley, and is home to the headquarters of Intel, Applied Materials, Sun Microsystems, NVIDIA, Agilent Technologies, and many other high-tech companies. It is home to both Mission College and Santa Clara University, the latter being the oldest institution of higher learning in the state of California. read more...
Sunnyvale
Sunnyvale is a city in Santa Clara County, California. It is one of the major cities that make up the Silicon Valley located in the San Francisco Bay Area. The city is bordered by portions of San Jose to the north, Moffett Federal Airfield to the northwest, Mountain View to the west, Los Altos to the southwest, Cupertino to the south, and Santa Clara to the east. It lies along the historic El Camino Real and Highway 101. read more...
