Where is Silicone Valley located?

The Blue Silicon Valley is located in the Monterey Bay of California, USA and is part of one of the leading and largest sustainable, marine protected area, research and development regions in the world called the Monterey Bay National Marine Sanctuary (MBNMS), which encompasses a shoreline length of 276 miles and more than 6,000 square miles of ocean. Monterey Bay itself is located 30 miles southwest of Silicon Valley and as part of the MBNMS was designated by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) in 1992, bringing federal protection to the marine area in Northern California stretching from Marin County to Cambria, California. The sanctuary was originally established for the purposes of resource protection, research and development, education and public use and is now the most researched body of water in the world.

Blue Silicon Valley

The Monterey Bay sanctuary contains America's largest kelp forest and one of the largest underwater canyons and closest-to-shore deep ocean environments in the world reaching over two miles in depth.

Monterey Bay was recently featured in a documentary on BBC called 'Big Blue Live' which documented the wildlife success story and marine animal phenomenon currently taking place in Monterey Bay. Footage of humpback whales, blue whales, sea lions, orcas, otters and seals was beamed 'live' back to the United Kingdom for three successive evenings in August 2015 and later viewed on PBS in the U.S.

Monterey Bay's diverse marine ecosystem also includes rugged rocky shores, wave-swept sandy beaches and tranquil estuaries. These habitats harbor a wide variety of marine life, including 34 species of marine mammals, more than 180 species of seabirds and shorebirds, at least 525 species of fish, and an abundance of invertebrates and algae. Known as the 'Serengeti of the Sea,' this productive marine environment is fringed by sand dunes, rocky cliffs, rolling hills and steep mountains.

The Monterey Bay area is also a world leader in sustainable marine science research and development with over 30 different academic, non-profit institutions, federal and state agency laboratories and other facilities focused on marine science, biology, research, education and technology with a combined annual budget exceeding $330 annually. Bordering Silicon Valley, cutting edge commercial activity from the Monterey Bay marine science community is now emerging worldwide. Thus, the term, ‘Blue Silicon Valley’, was coined by a group of leading businesspeople, engineers and scientists from Silicon Valley and the Monterey Bay region of California.

The Monterey Bay's marine science expertise includes oceanography, climate and weather forecasting, fisheries, remote sensing, marine ecosystems, environmental monitoring, cellular and molecular marine biology, instrument/sensor/mooring development, underwater vehicles technology, ocean currents and acoustics, marine policy and education. Other marine science sectors of leadership include abalone farming, marine aquaculture for food and energy, kelp farm production, climate change, sea level rise research and water quality analysis.

The Monterey Bay 'Blue Silicon Valley' is supported by the business communities of Silicon Valley and the Monterey Bay and is now being promoted to the Blue Economy around the world.

Qingdao, Shandong (PRC), the 9th busiest port in the world, established its own ‘Blue Silicon Valley’ which is centered in its new high-tech industrial zone and is estimated to have over 10,000 companies supporting over 200,000 new jobs in the coming years. The 'Blue Silicon Valleys' in both America and China are now cooperating with research, trade and investment between their respective 'blue economies' to lead the world in providing sustainable solutions to the challenges our oceans face in the 21st Century.

Silicon Valley is one of the most innovative technopoles in the world. It is located in the San Francisco Bay area of California. The area consists of a 70 kilometre by 15 kilometre radius stretching from Palo Alto to San Jose. In the late 1950s, there were little computing and technology jobs in the region, this quickly changed in the 1970s and 1980s where in 1985 there was a reported 56,126 jobs in the high-tech field.
Frederick Terman, a professor at Stanford University who later became the Dean of electrical engineering, initiated many R&D initiatives in Silicon Valley. Terman helped his students, such as William Hewlett and David Packard, to initiate their own companies and at times even personally invested in them. In 1951, Terman also helped to establish Stanford Industrial Park.

Technopole

Technopole refers to a center of high-tech manufacturing and information-based quaternary industry. The term was coined by Allen J. Scott in 1990 to describe regions in southern California which showed a rapid growth in high technology fields. This term now has a broader scope to describe regions worldwide dedicated to technological innovation. Technopoles may be developed by the private sector or by the co-operation or partnership between the public and private sectors. Governments of all levels promote them as a panacea for economies hurt by economic restructuring. Large corporations and small business operate within these high technology areas. Networking between companies is important and made possible by technological advances. Technopoles are combined technological and business centers specifically established around recognized educational and research institutes.

There are several definitions for "technopole" in an international context, whereby focus is usually placed on the existence of four factors:

Factors important to investors include:

Technopoles are also vulnerable to global trends and can dissolve quickly if they are not properly supported. Technopoles have to be flexible and willing to experiment with new ideas to be seen as a global competitor. Governments and corporations tend to continue to heavily invest in technopoles in hopes of gaining economic prosperity.

Technopoles in South Africa include regions of Pretoria, Johannesburg and East Rand. These areas have the largest concentration of national R&D facilities.

In Japan, technopoles were planned and developed by the Ministry of International Trade and Industry (MITI). Since 1983, there have been over 25 technopoles in Japan as designated by MITI. Some of the most successful technopoles in Japan include Okayama, Hiroshima, Yamaguchi and Kumamoto.

UNIDO Viet Nam (United Nations Industrial Development Organization) has compiled in 2015 a list of Technopoles in the ASEAN Economic Community in a report titled "Economic Zones in the ASEAN" written by Arnault Morisson

In Australia, technopoles include the Technology Precinct Bentley WA, La Trobe Research and Development Park, Ballarat Technology Park VIC, The Australian Technology Park NSW, Brisbane Technology Park QLD, Tasmanian Technopark and Adelaide University Research Park SA.

Technopoles in the United Kingdom include counties such as Berkshire and Hampshire in the “Western Crescent” of London, as well as Hertfordshire in the Northern section of London.

In France, there are technopoles located near Rennes, Grenoble, Toulouse, Lyon and Paris.

Writer Joel Stratte-McClure of "Time Magazine" described a technopole in southern France called "Sophia Antipolis" which had 1,200 companies in a sprawling development twenty minutes away from the airport in Nice. According to the report, the technopole featured hiking trails and jogging paths and riding stables and golf courses and signs which indicate the names of various species of plants, and with street names which were "slightly pretentious" such as "Rue Dostoevski" and "Rue Albert Einstein" criss-crossing rolling hills with pine trees. There are reflecting pools, although the layout was criticized as somewhat "confusing" for taxi drivers.

The Technopole Program of Lower Austria is a trendsetter in implementing the linkage of education/training, research and business. Lower Austria’s three Technopoles are already setting international standards: Technopole Krems in the fields of biotech and regenerative medicine, Technopole Tulln in environmental biotechnology and agrobiotechnology, Technopole Wiener Neustadt in microsystems engineering, tribology and medical systems technology.

Universities surrounding Silicon Vally have provided a constant stream of students who take interest in projects and companies within Silicon Valley. With the various numbers of small companies in the area, it is common for employees to move from one company to another. Employees tend to maintain informal social connections with past coworkers which expand professional and social networks. These expanded networks have enabled a rapid exchange of information resulting in the formation of new businesses, research, and development opportunities. Silicon Valley remains one of the leading technopoles of the world to date with its competitive entrepreneurs, its innovative workforce and its firm base of investors.

Route 128 is another technopole located in the United States. Route 128 was a stretch of highway in the Greater Boston Area with many research and industrial facilities The route linked many towns in the greater Boston area and many technology firms relocated there for its proximity to universities such as the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), Cambridge and Harvard.

MIT played an integral role in establishing Route 128 as a technopole. MIT was established in 1861 as a technical university. After the Second World War, MIT encouraged technological innovation through commercially oriented research. Funding for research projects came from large corporations such as GE, Eastern Kodak, and Dupont, as well as the federal government. In 1930, the Division of Industrial Cooperation and Research which solicited research contracts from companies was discontinued, although MIT maintained its capacity to solicit corporate contracts. Many of research projects included electronic innovations and projects for the federal government. In 1941, the Office of Scientific Research and Development (OSRD) was created. During the 1940s and 1950s, MIT received one third of the OSRD’s contracts, which was estimated at $330 million in contracts for research projects. Harvard University and other local universities also received funding for research projects alongside MIT. This area was named “Research Row”. Unlike Frederick Terman’s approach of aiding start-up companies within Stanford University, MIT had a strict policy which would not invest in start-up companies of its students, as investing was considered risky and inconsistent with their policies. Despite MIT choosing not to invest in start-up organizations around the region, there were many technology firms that provided funding. MIT continues to solicit contracts from corporations and is still highly regarded as an institution that is a leader in technological innovations.

Other technopoles in the United States include places such as Austin, TX; Denver-Boulder, CO; Huntsville, AL; Lafayette, IN; Madison, WI; Philadelphia-Wilmington-Trenton; Raleigh-Durham, NC; San Francisco-Oakland-San Jose and Washington.

Silicon Valley is a region in the southern San Francisco Bay Area of Northern California that serves as a global center for high technology, innovation and social media. It corresponds roughly to the geographical area of Santa Clara Valley. San Jose is the Valley's largest city, the third largest in California, and the tenth largest in the United States. Other major Silicon Valley cities include Palo Alto, Menlo Park, Cupertino, 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.

Silicon Valley

The word "silicon" in the name 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.

The popularization of the name is credited to Don Hoefler, who first used it in the article "Silicon Valley in the USA", appearing in the January 11, 1971 issue of the weekly trade newspaper "Electronic News". 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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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, 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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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).

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.

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 venture capital on Sand Hill Road, beginning with Kleiner Perkins and Sequoia Capital in 1972; the availability of venture capital exploded after the successful $1.3 billion IPO of Apple Computer in December 1980.
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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

Manufacture of transistors is, or was, the core industry in Silicon Valley. The production workforce was for the most part composed of Asian and Latino 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.

"The Economist" also attributes the high cost of living to the incredible success of the industries in this region. Although, this rift between high and low salaries is driving many residents out who can no longer afford to live there. In the Bay Area, the number of residents planning to leave within the next several years has had an increase of 12% since 2016, from 34% to 46%.

Thousands of high technology companies are headquartered in Silicon Valley. Among those, the following are in the Fortune 1000:

Additional notable companies headquartered (or with a significant presence) in Silicon Valley include (some defunct or subsumed):
Silicon Valley is also home to the high-tech superstore retail chain Fry's Electronics.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.

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. 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.

Funding for public schools in upscale Silicon Valley communities such as Woodside is often supplemented by grants from private foundations set up for that purpose and funded by local residents. Schools in less affluent areas such as East Palo Alto must depend on state funding.

The following Santa Clara County cities are traditionally considered to be in Silicon Valley (in alphabetical order):

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.

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.

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.

Some appearances in media, in order by release date:

The Salinas Valley is one of the major valleys and most productive agricultural regions in California. Located within Monterey County, it is west of the San Joaquin Valley and south of San Francisco Bay and the Santa Clara Valley—Silicon Valley. The Salinas Valley is also famously mentioned in many of John Steinbeck's novels, such as "Of Mice and Men", and "East of Eden".

Salinas Valley

The Salinas River, which geologically formed the fluvial valley and generated its human history, flows to the northwest or 'up' along the principal axis and length of the valley.

The valley was named during the late 18th-century Spanish colonial Alta California period, and in Spanish "salina" is the term for a salt marsh, salt lake, or salt pan. The seasonal Salinas River had brackish tule ponds in broad depressed areas, and more salinity during summer and drought lowered flows.

The valley runs in a southeast to northwest alignment. It begins south of San Ardo, framed by the central inner California Coast Ranges, continues north-westward continuously defined on the west by the Santa Lucia Range, on the east by the Gabilan Range, to its end and the river's mouth at the Monterey Bay.

The Salinas Valley runs approximately southeast from the Salinas River mouth near Castroville and Salinas towards King City and San Ardo. The valley lends its name to the geologic province in which it is located, the Salinian Block. Cities and populated places in the Salinas Valley include Bradley, Castroville, Chualar, Gonzales, Greenfield, Jolon, King City, Salinas, San Ardo, San Lucas, Soledad and Spreckels. The Salinas Valley is located in between the Gabilan and Santa Lucia mountain ranges, which border the Salinas Valley to the east and the west, respectively.

Before colonization, the valley was inhabited by indigenous Salinans who lived by hunting and gathering and spoke the Salinan language.

The Spanish colonial missions of San Miguel Arcángel, San Antonio de Padua and Nuestra Señora de la Soledad were all founded within the Salinas Valley in the late 18th century; from the last grew the city of Soledad.
The commercial farming sector of the Dustbowl era forms the backdrop for several John Steinbeck stories including "East of Eden", "Tortilla Flat", "Of Mice and Men", "The Chrysanthemums", and "Johnny Bear".

At a railroad crossing about one mile south of Chualar, a bus carrying Mexican migrant workers collided with a train in September 1963, killing 32 passengers and injuring 25. It was the most serious road accident in U.S. history, and helped spur abolition of the bracero guest worker program. The portion of U.S. Route 101 where the accident occurred was named "Bracero Memorial Highway" at the 50th anniversary of the accident in 2013. At that time two survivors of the crash were still alive.

Agriculture dominates the economy of the valley. Promoters call the Salinas Valley "the Salad Bowl of the World" for the production of lettuce, broccoli, peppers and numerous other crops. The climate and long growing season are also ideal for the flower industry and grape vineyards planted by world-famous vintners.

In particular, a large majority of the salad greens consumed in the U.S. are grown within this region. Strawberries, lettuce, tomatoes, and spinach are the dominant crops in the valley. Other crops include broccoli, cauliflower, wine grapes, artichokes, and celery. Due to the intensity of local agriculture, the area has earned itself the nickname "America's Salad Bowl." The flower industry, grown in greenhouses, is now dominated by Matsui Nursery, which has been a major philanthropic benefactor to Salinas.

Salinas Valley is also an important viticultural area. Three American Viticultural Association "American Viticultural Area" domains are located within Salinas Valley: the Arroyo Seco AVA, the Santa Lucia Highlands AVA, and the Monterey AVA.

Although agriculture forms an economic base, more than 100 manufacturing firms call Salinas home. Some of the largest employers in the area include: Dole Fresh Vegetable, the County of Monterey, and Salinas Valley Memorial Hospital.

Supplying Salinas Valley farms is an underground water supply fed, in part, by the large watershed in surrounding mountains. Two reservoirs – Nacimiento and San Antonio—store and release the water for groundwater recharge, flood control and farming. Wells access the groundwater to irrigate about of fruits and vegetables and to supply the valley cities. The Salinas River itself is a sand river, so water appears on the surface only during heavy rains or when water is released from the upstream reservoirs. Increasing demand for water near the mouth of the valley is pulling seawater under the coastal area. The Salinas Valley Water Project, now under construction by the Monterey County Water Resources Agency, will use an inflatable dam near Salinas to capture more water during wet periods. Monterey County Water Recycling Projects, a combination of the Castroville Seawater Intrusion Project and the Salinas Valley Reclamation Project, started delivering recycled water to fields near Castroville in 1998. The projects reduce pumping of groundwater and slow down seawater intrusion.

The Salinas Valley's weather varies from north to south. Proximity to Monterey Bay and the cool coastal waters of the Pacific cools the northern part of the valley in summer, and keeps it relatively mild in winter. The southern portion of the valley has greater extremes of temperature, hotter in summer, and colder in winter.

In summer, inland heating draws the marine layer into the valley, with fog and low clouds near Monterey Bay, sometimes extending farther down the valley.

The climate is ideal for the numerous vineyards in the Santa Lucia Highlands, promoting growth of winetasting along the River Road Wine Trail.

The California Rodeo Salinas, California International Airshow, the National Steinbeck Center, and the Steinbeck Festival are major attractions.

On August 30, 2007, 8,000 cartons of spinach (from Metz Fresh, a King City-based grower and shipper, Salinas Valley, California) were recalled after "Salmonella" was discovered on routine testing. The incident led to a call from some consumer advocates and lawmakers for greater oversight in food safety, even if 90% of the suspect vegetable did not reach the shelves.

The Silicon Cape Initiative is a private sector community movement that was founded by two South African high-tech entrepreneurs, Vinny Lingham and Justin Stanford. Both being entrepreneurs and angel investors in the information and communication technologies start-up sector in South Africa, they observed the unique confluence of circumstances emerging in their home country and in particular in the province of the Western Cape. The name "Silicon Cape" is based on the technological hub Silicon Valley in the United States San Francisco Bay Area. Whilst the Western Cape cannot be compared directly to Silicon Valley, it does possess some core organic elements which in its infancy, could be likened to that of Silicon Valley in California, USA.

Silicon Cape Initiative

The Cape Silicon Initiative or Silicon Cape is a regional ICT business networking NPO and community in the Western Cape, South Africa.

Silicon Cape as a concept was officially launched to the public on October 8, 2009. Attendance at the event was greater than anticipated and a new, larger venue had to be sourced. At the event there were representatives from schools, universities, start-ups, big business, local and national government, NGOs, and the venture capital industry. Over a third of the audience was expected to be young IT entrepreneurs. The launch was circulated through social media platforms Facebook and Twitter. Speakers included Dr. Johann Rupert (chairman of luxury goods company Richemont), Dr. Mamphela Ramphele (chairperson of the Technology Innovation Agency), Helen Zille (premier of the Western Cape) and Matthew Buckland (internet entrepreneur, founder of Creative Spark and Memeburn) who was the event's MC. At the launch, The Silicon Cape Foundation non-profit entity was formed by a 10-seat community.

Silicon Cape is overseen by a 12-person steering committee.

The vision of the Silicon Cape is to be an organic ecosystem that functions in the Western Cape of South Africa. Its goal is to look to attract top technical talent and entrepreneurs to the Western Cape and to assist these parties in creating "world class" IP start-up companies in an environment that competes with other similar hubs around the world. Its ultimate goal is to help foster a high-technology district in the Western Cape.

The concept of the Silicon Cape is not owned or controlled by any single entity, and is a living concept of its participants. Any person globally is able to take advantage of the Silicon Cape network through the social networking platform of Silicon Cape.

Silicon Cape aims at assisting people with ICT ideas and entrepreneurs to avoid the many pitfalls associated with ICT start-ups in South Africa. Entrepreneurs in South Africa face many obstacles including access to finance, punishment for previous failure, lack of global experience, no liquidity events and others. The potential of entrepreneurs and I.T. visionaries for the African continent is starting to make an emergence and has been recognised, including by Brian Herlihy, the CEO of SEACOM who stated that the next “Google” could and should be coming out of Africa.

The Silicon Cape Initiative was very well received by the local community. Although there was no marketing budget or spend (the initiative was driven by word of mouth), the Silicon Cape received a large amount of press release from South Africa’s leading online publications. The following statistics were reported by 6 April 2010:In March 2011, Google announced the launch of "Umbono" (Xhosa for "vision"), a business incubator, and opened applications for venture capital of up to $50,000 as well as free internet and office space to existing and potential start-up companies. It announced that it would be collaborating with Silicon Cape and Bandwidth Barn, a regional business incubator. Google's South African country manager, cited Yola, Mxit and Twangoo as successful start-up companies which showed signs of development in the IT industry in the Western Cape.

Silicon Cape was an instrumental tool used for the establishment of a crowd funding network, an angel investor network that was established by Silicon Cape participants.

The initiative's first long-term partnership was secured in October 2014, when it was announced that they would be receiving an annual donation of R1 million for three years from First National Bank.

Silicon Cape was named Runner Up in South African Blog Awards 2016

Advocates of Silicon Cape have argued that in order to attract investors to the Western Cape, local and national government should create a tax free zone to enable growth in start-up companies.

At the launch of Silicon Cape, Johann Rupert stated, "we need a financial centre in the Western Cape and an IT centre that is tax neutral, where intellectual property is protected, and the Cape will flourish.". He emphasised the value of intellectual property given that the Western Cape does not have any raw resources which it can export. He further noted on the greater economy of South Africa, "we cannot survive if we rely on the export of raw materials. In the future, countries that are not net exporters of intellectual capital will not survive."

The imposition of exchange controls in South Africa, although eased in recent years, also obstructs growth in the IT sector of the region because local businesses are prohibited from trading in foreign currency and using e-commerce services such as PayPal on their local sites. On March 18, 2011, it was ruled by the Supreme Court of Appeal that "exchange control approval" is not required when transferring ownership of intellectual property to a non-resident. Although no amendment to the present regulations has been made.

Other challenges include a perceived lack of skills in South Africa, a lack of large anchor corporates that provide management training, a lack of professional services firms available and affordable for the start-up market and lack of capital structures through angel funding networks.

South Africa, and the Western Cape may struggle as a region in driving to the Silicon Cape Initiative due to “profitable patriotism”

Other regions of South Africa such as Gauteng have felt isolated from the Silicon Cape Initiative which has focused on the Western Cape as a region.