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109-532: The board's goals have been variously described as bringing the technological innovation and best practices of Silicon Valley , including in technology, workforce, and organizational structure, to the Department of Defense . The Board has three subcommittees: Science & Technology; Workforce, Behavior, and Culture; and Space Advisory Committee. Its areas of interest include AI , software , data , digital modernization, and human capital . Meetings are set by

218-472: A metonymical definition referring to high-tech businesses in the entire Bay Area. The term Silicon Valley is often 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 similarly named locations , as well as research parks and technology centers with comparable structures all around

327-461: A 1,200,000 acres (490,000 ha) area encompassing much of eastern Santa Clara County as well as portions of southern Alameda County, western Merced and Stanislaus Counties , and northern San Benito County . Acquisitions to date include the 1,756-acre (711 ha) Rancho Cañada de Pala , straddling the Alameda Creek and Coyote Creek watersheds for California tiger salamander habitat;

436-853: A city of only 50,000 people, "the densest concentration of lawyers" in the United States outside of Washington, D.C. By the year 2000, large law firms from all over the world were rushing to establish offices in the mid-Peninsula region on or near Sand Hill Road, and Silicon Valley law firms had become global trendsetters in that they were the first legal services employers to adopt business casual apparel (in imitation of their startup clients). During this era, lawyers evolved from their relatively narrow conventional role as protectors of intellectual property into business advisers, intermediaries, and dealmakers, and thereby acquired great prominence in Silicon Valley. For young entrepreneurs new to

545-441: 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." In 1969,

654-482: A conservation easement on the 3,259-acre Blue Oak Ranch Reserve , which abuts the north side of Joseph D. Grant County Park ; a conservation easement on the 28,359-acre San Felipe Ranch, connecting Joseph D. Grant County Park with Henry W. Coe State Park ; the 2,899-acre South Valley Ranch which protects a tule elk herd in the San Antonio Valley, and other properties. As of 1980, Santa Clara County had

763-498: A few hundred feet at Mount Boardman ), Stanislaus , Merced , San Benito , Santa Cruz , and San Mateo County . Santa Clara County formerly shared borders with Contra Costa , San Francisco , Mariposa , Monterey , and Tuolumne counties until 1853, 1856, 1874, and 1854 respectively (Monterey County currently comes within a few miles of Santa Clara). The San Andreas Fault runs along the Santa Cruz Mountains in

872-654: A fifth herd of tule elk was documented by local naturalist Roger Castillo, likely having split from the Coyote Ridge herd and established itself in Silver Creek Valley around the closed Ranch Golf Club. The elk herds in eastern Santa Clara County are blocked from dispersal to the west by U.S. Highway 101, with environmentalists advocating re-purposing the Metcalf Road bridge at the Coyote Gap into

981-561: A general metonym for California's high-tech business sector. The cities of Sunnyvale , Mountain View , Palo Alto and Menlo Park are frequently cited as the birthplace of Silicon Valley. San Jose is Silicon Valley's largest city, the third-largest in California , and the 13th-most populous in the United States . Other major Silicon Valley cities include Santa Clara , Redwood City and Cupertino . The San Jose Metropolitan Area has

1090-599: 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

1199-575: A majority in the county was Ronald Reagan in 1984. While Republicans remained competitive at the state and local level throughout the 1990s, there are currently no elected Republicans representing the county above the local level. According to the California Secretary of State , as of February 10, 2019, Santa Clara County has 895,965 registered voters. Of those, 405,470 (45.3%) are registered Democrats , 151,213 (16.9%) are registered Republicans , and 308,769 (35.4%) have declined to state

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1308-732: A number of other officials to county-wide positions, including the Santa Clara County District Attorney, the Santa Clara County Sheriff, and a large number of criminal and civil judges that serve in courts throughout the county. Historically, Santa Clara County was a Republican stronghold in presidential elections. From 1872 through 1984 , the only Democrats to carry Santa Clara County were Franklin Roosevelt , Lyndon Johnson , and Hubert Humphrey . However, 1988 would begin to mark

1417-444: A political party. As of November 2012, all of the cities, towns, and unincorporated areas of Santa Clara County have more registered Democrats than Republicans. In 2008 , Barack Obama carried every city and town in the county, as well as the unincorporated areas. Following the passage of Proposition 8 , Santa Clara County joined San Francisco and Los Angeles in a lawsuit , becoming, along with San Francisco and Los Angeles,

1526-494: 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, although the venture capital ecosystem has grown more geographically decentralized over time. The region is the biggest high-tech manufacturing center in the United States. The unemployment rate of the region

1635-580: A significant shift in the county's political leanings, starting with Michael Dukakis ' narrow win and culminating in Bill Clinton 's substantial 20-point victory in 1992 . Since then, the Democratic presidential candidate has won Santa Clara County by large margins, and it also remains solidly blue in congressional elections, as all politicians representing the county at the state and federal level are known to be Democrats. The last Republican to win

1744-585: A single-person household was $ 14,891. Thousands of high technology companies are headquartered in Silicon Valley. Among those, the following are in the Fortune 1000 : Additional notable companies headquartered in Silicon Valley (some of which are defunct, subsumed, or relocated) include: Silicon Valley has a population of 3.1 million as of 2020. A 1999 study by AnnaLee Saxenian for the Public Policy Institute of California reported that

1853-605: 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,

1962-462: 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 descent CEOs (7 percent). There is a stratum of well-compensated technical employees and managers, including tens of thousands of "single-digit millionaires". This income and range of assets will support a middle-class lifestyle in Silicon Valley. In November 2006,

2071-721: A wildlife overcrossing. This would enable elk to recolonize rural southwestern Santa Clara County, as well as Santa Cruz and San Mateo Counties. In 1990, the California Department of Fish and Game 's Henry Coletto translocated excess pronghorn from Modoc County to six locations in California, including 51 animals to the San Felipe Ranch in Santa Clara County, where the swift-footed ungulates had not lived for generations. The animals left

2180-506: Is James R. Williams, J.D. The County Executive is responsible for the administration of the county and appoints almost all other officers and department heads. The county is one among three counties in California (with Napa and Madera) to establish a separate department, the Santa Clara County Department of Corrections, to deal with corrections pursuant to California Government Code §23013. The county operates

2289-762: Is a stub . You can help Misplaced Pages by expanding it . Silicon Valley Silicon Valley is a region in Northern California that is a global center for high technology and innovation . Located in the southern part of the San Francisco Bay Area , it corresponds roughly to the geographical area of the Santa Clara Valley . The term "Silicon Valley" refers to the area in which high-tech business has proliferated in Northern California, and it also serves as

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2398-539: Is a public library system serving the communities and cities of Campbell, Cupertino, Gilroy, Los Altos, Los Altos Hills, Milpitas, Monte Sereno, Morgan Hill, Saratoga, and all unincorporated areas of the county. Other cities run their own library systems. The county's main airport is Norman Y. Mineta San José International Airport (SJC). It is a U.S. Customs and Border Protection port of entry and as of 2019 has five international routes (two to Canada, one to England, one to Japan, seven to Mexico, and one to China) but

2507-608: 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. 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

2616-484: Is considered to be Silicon Valley is within the county, although some adjoining tech regions in San Mateo (e.g., Facebook ), Alameda , and Santa Cruz counties are also considered part of Silicon Valley. According to the U.S. Census Bureau , the county has a total area of 1,291.08 square miles (3,343.9 km ). Counties which border with Santa Clara County are, clockwise, Alameda County , San Joaquin (within

2725-585: The Peninsula Times Tribune described a Palo Alto company that "helps production people in Silicon Valley." However, the term did not gain widespread use until 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 urbanized area is built upon an alluvial plain within a longitudinal valley formed by roughly parallel earthquake faults. The area between

2834-538: The County of Santa Clara , is the sixth-most populous county in the U.S. state of California , with a population of 1,936,259 as of the 2020 census . Santa Clara County and neighboring San Benito County form the San Jose–Sunnyvale–Santa Clara metropolitan statistical area , which is part of the larger San Jose–San Francisco–Oakland combined statistical area . Santa Clara is the most populous county in

2943-502: The De Anza Expedition on March 23, 1776: " In Gilroy Valley (Santa Clara Valley) Moraga 's larder was replenished by three elks which the men killed without leaving the road." General John Bidwell , of the 1841 Bartleson-Bidwell Party wrote: "In some of the fertile valleys, such as Napa and Santa Clara, there were elk literally by the thousand." In 1978, California Department of Fish and Game warden Henry Coletto urged

3052-512: The East Coast of the United States . From the 1890s, Stanford University's leaders saw its mission as service to the (American) 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

3161-639: The Intel 8080 , the second 8-bit microprocessor designed and manufactured by 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

3270-584: 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

3379-439: The San Francisco Bay Area and in Northern California . The county seat and largest city with a population of 971,233 is San Jose , the 13th-most populous city in the nation, California's third-most populous city , and the most populous city in Northern California . Home to Silicon Valley , Santa Clara County is an economic center for high technology , and had the third-highest gross domestic product (GDP) per capita in

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3488-764: The San Luis National Wildlife Refuge to add genetic diversity to the San Antonio Valley Ecological Reserve herd in San Antonio Valley in extreme eastern Santa Clara County. As of 2017 there were four herds in the Coyote Ridge area, often visible from U. S. Highway 101, according to Craige Edgerton, recently retired executive director of the Silicon Valley Land Conservancy and local naturalist Michael Hundt. In 2019,

3597-713: The Santa Clara County Health System of medical centers and clinics. In the United States House of Representatives , Santa Clara County is split among four congressional districts: In the California State Senate , the county is split among four legislative districts: In the California State Assembly , the county is split among six legislative districts: Voters in the county also elect

3706-544: 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 . Following

3815-624: The Stanford Industrial Park (later Stanford Research Park ). Terman invited only high-technology companies. The first tenant was Varian Associates , founded by Stanford alumni in the 1930s to build military-radar components. Terman also found venture capital for civilian-technology start-ups. Hewlett-Packard became one of the major success-stories. Founded in 1939 in Packard's garage by Stanford graduates Bill Hewlett and David Packard , Hewlett-Packard moved its offices into

3924-565: The Stanford Linear Accelerator Center . 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 , Douglas Engelbart invented

4033-547: The Stanford Research Institute (now SRI International), operated one of the four original nodes that comprised ARPANET , predecessor to the Internet . 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. Growth during this era

4142-575: The U.S. Supreme Court case of Santa Clara County v. Southern Pacific Railroad , 118 U.S. 394 (1886), in which the court extended due-process rights to artificial legal entities . In the early 20th century, the area was promoted as the "Valley of the Heart's Delight" due to its natural beauty, including a significant number of orchards . The region was also memorably referred to as the "sun-kissed Santa Clara Valley" in Jack London's 1903 Call of

4251-640: 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

4360-617: 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

4469-401: The venture capital investment in the United States, which has helped it to become a leading hub and startup ecosystem for high-tech innovation, although the tech ecosystem has recently become more geographically dispersed. It was in Silicon Valley that the silicon-based integrated circuit , the microprocessor , and the microcomputer , among other technologies, were developed. As of 2021 ,

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4578-608: The "preprofit" stage. Prior to 1970, most Northern California lawyers were based in San Francisco, especially the experienced patent attorneys whom the high-tech industry needed to protect its intellectual property. During the 1970s, lawyers began to follow venture capitalists down the Peninsula to serve the booming high-tech industry in Silicon Valley. As of 1999, there were 2,400 lawyers practicing law in Palo Alto,

4687-399: The 1959 inventions of the monolithic integrated circuit (IC) chip by Robert Noyce at Fairchild, the first commercial MOS IC was introduced by General Microelectronics in 1964. The first single-chip microprocessor was the Intel 4004 , designed and realized by Federico Faggin along with Ted Hoff , Masatoshi Shima and Stanley Mazor at Intel in 1971. In April 1974, Intel released

4796-508: 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 . A world-renowned technology hub, San Francisco Bay Area has

4905-681: 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

5014-666: The Board’s Designated Federal Officer in consultation with the Chair and DoD Chief Management Officer (DoD CMO). Meetings are usually open to the public. In 2016, the board's members traveled throughout the world seeking innovative ideas from troops to improve processes in all theaters of operation. Joshua Marcuse served as the board's first executive director until March 2020. The board's first chairman, Eric Schmidt , served until September 2020. As of October 2022: This United States government–related article

5123-917: The San Felipe Ranch for the Isabel and San Antonio Valleys, as well as an area near Lake Del Valle in Alameda County may now be extirpated by poaching, highway vehicle collisions, and insufficient numbers to defend pronghorn fawns against coyote predation. As of 2012, the Isabel Valley Ranch herd had dwindled to 3 animals, and the Lake del Valle herd to 13. Currently, iNaturalist.org has zero observer records of pronghorn in Santa Clara County. The Nature Conservancy "Mount Hamilton Project" has acquired or put under conservation easement 100,000 acres (40,000 ha) of land towards its 500,000 acres (200,000 ha) goal for habitat conservation within

5232-587: The Stanford Research Park shortly after 1953. In 1954 Stanford originated 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

5341-511: The United States. A 2023 report found that the aggregate household wealth of Silicon Valley (including ultra-high net worth individuals ) was nearly $ 1.1 trillion, and less than 1% of the Valley's population held 36% of the wealth. Conversely, as of 2021, 23% of Silicon Valley residents were living below the poverty line . However, the meaning of the term "poverty" is dependent upon context; in Silicon Valley, it means something different because of

5450-548: The Valley's mysterious ways, their lawyer often served as their first coach, mentor, teacher, friend, and cheerleader who helped connect them to the Valley's startup ecosystem. As of 2022, the San Jose-Sunnyvale-Santa Clara metropolitan area had the highest average wage for lawyers in the United States, at $ 267,840. 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

5559-526: The Wild . The first major technology company to be based in the area was Hewlett-Packard , founded in a garage in Palo Alto in 1939. IBM selected San Jose as its West Coast headquarters in 1943. Varian Associates , Fairchild Semiconductor , and other early innovators were in the county by the late 1940s and 1950s. The U.S. Navy had a large presence in the area and began giving large contracts to Silicon Valley electronics companies. The term " Silicon Valley "

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5668-720: The airport's busiest routes are all to cities in the western United States. San Francisco International Airport (SFO) is also often used for commercial services by residents of Santa Clara County. Moffett Federal Airfield (NUQ), a former U.S. Naval Air Station , is used by the Air National Guard , NASA , Lockheed Martin , Google , and by the Santa Clara County Sheriff's Department as an air operations base. There are also smaller general aviation airports in Palo Alto (PAO) , San Jose (Reid-Hillview) (RHV) , and San Martin(E16) Santa Clara County

5777-575: 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 , which

5886-424: The area's high-tech firms. Frederick Terman , as Stanford University's dean of the school of engineering from 1946, encouraged faculty and graduates to start their own companies. In 1951 Terman spearheaded the formation of Stanford Industrial Park (now Stanford Research Park , an area surrounding Page Mill Road , south west of El Camino Real and extending beyond Foothill Expressway to Arastradero Road), where

5995-401: The average family size was 3.41. In the county, the age distribution was 24.7% under 18, 9.3% from 18 to 24, 35.4% from 25 to 44, 21.0% from 45 to 64, and 9.5% who were 65 or older. The median age was 34 years. For every 100 females, there were 102.80 males. For every 100 females 18 and over, there were 101.90 males. The median income for a household in the county was $ 74,335, and for a family

6104-414: The basis for many electronic developments for decades. Both Frederick Terman and William Shockley are often called "the father of Silicon Valley". 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

6213-548: The basis of its growth and success. The United States was more friendly than other countries to business investment, charging much lower taxes on capital gains since the Revenue Act of 1921 , and featuring particularly loose free market controls over new business. In 1953, the Small Business Administration was created to foster startups , giving a boost to entrepreneurs. Northern California

6322-467: 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

6431-550: The country, despite extreme land prices. The surge in metro GDP is highly correlated with home prices, which for average single-family homes passed $ 1 million ($ 1,017,528) in August 2013. As of the fourth quarter of 2021, the median value of homes in Santa Clara County was $ 1,253,400, an increase of 11.9% from the prior year, and ranking fourth in the US for highest median home value. School districts include: Santa Clara County Library

6540-518: The county's water security . As of 2020, it has a median household income of $ 130,890, the third-highest household income of any county in the nation behind Loudoun County, Virginia and Falls Church, Virginia , and the highest of any county in the Western United States . Santa Clara County is named for Mission Santa Clara , which was established in 1777, and was in turn named for Saint Clare of Assisi . Santa Clara County

6649-530: The department to choose the Mount Hamilton area as one of California's relocation sites under a new statewide effort to restore tule elk. While other ranchers refused, tech pioneers Bill Hewlett and David Packard allowed Coletto and state biologists to translocate the initial 32 tule elk from the Owens Valley in the eastern Sierra onto the 28,000-acre (11,000 ha) San Felipe Ranch , which

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6758-667: The diversity hire. He described being isolated from his team, and constantly having to prove he could do the job he was hired for. 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/Latino . 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

6867-510: 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

6976-404: The elk horns as four varas [11 feet (3.4 m)] across... "These animals [elk] are called ciervos in order to differentiate them from the ordinary Spanish variety of deer, here called venados , which also exist in abundance and of large size in the vicinity." Regarding pronghorn, Moraga reported: "In the said plains of San Bernardino (Santa Clara Valley)…there is another species of deer about

7085-960: The families jointly own, in the hills east of Morgan Hill . From the three original 1978–1981 translocations (totaling 65 animals) to the Mount Hamilton region of the Diablo Range , there are multiple herds in different locations including the Isabel Valley, San Antonio Valley , Livermore area, San Felipe Ranch, Metcalf Canyon, Coyote Ridge , Anderson Lake , and surrounding areas such as the Sunol and Cottonwood Creek (near San Luis Reservoir in western Merced County, California ) herds. As of 2012 , an estimated 400 tule elk roam 1,875 square kilometres (724 sq mi) in northeastern Santa Clara County and southeastern Alameda County . In March 2014 CDFW translocated nine bull elk from

7194-400: The faults subsided into a graben or dropped valley. Hoefler defined Silicon Valley as the urbanized parts of "the San Francisco Peninsula and Santa Clara Valley". Before the expansive growth of the tech industry, the region had been the largest fruit-producing and packing region in the world up through the 1960s, with 39 fruit canneries. The nickname it had been known as during that period

7303-428: The first governmental entities in the world to sue for same-sex marriage. The following table includes the number of incidents reported in 2009 and the rate per 1,000 persons for each type of offense. Law Enforcement in Santa Clara County is handled by the Santa Clara County Sheriff's Office and local police departments. The county's economy is heavily services-based. Technology, both hardware and software, dominates

7412-400: The first journalist to use the term in a news story. His article "Silicon Valley U.S.A." was published in the January 11, 1971, issue of the weekly trade newspaper Electronic News . In preparation for this report, during a lunch meeting with marketing people who were visiting the area, he heard them use the term. Earlier uses outside journalism exist; for example, a May 1970 advertisement in

7521-459: The first quarter of 2023. 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 was for a long time the core industry in Silicon Valley. The workforce was for the most part composed of Asian and Latino immigrants who were paid low wages and worked in hazardous conditions due to

7630-461: The great plain called San Bernardino (the Santa Clara Valley which stretches from south San Jose to Gilroy ), while the expedition was strung out at length, we descried in the distance a herd of large animals that looked like cattle, but we could not imagine where they belonged or from whence they had come...with horns similar in shape to those of the deer, but so large that they measured sixteen palms from tip to tip." Upon measurement, Morago reported

7739-430: The high cost of living to the 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 35% since 2016, from 34% to 46%. The wealth inequality in Silicon Valley is more pronounced than in any other region of

7848-573: The highest number of Superfund Sites of any county in the United States, accounting for 25 polluted locations requiring a long-term response to clean up hazardous material contaminations. As of 2019 , Santa Clara County has 23 active Superfund Sites, still more than any other county in the United States. The vast majority of these Superfund sites were caused by firms associated with the high tech sector in Silicon Valley . Census demographics data released in 2019 show Asian Americans have had

7957-641: 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. A 2017 study showed that white males made up the majority of higher positions, with 58.7% holding executive positions and 46.5% being managers. The second highest position holders were Asian men, with 16.3% having executive positions and 17.9% being managers. African/Black and Hispanic/Latino people had

8066-408: 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

8175-534: The lowest percentages in all categories. Harvard Business Review published an article in 2018 discussing diversity and inclusion and gave statistics on black employees along with advice to future black technicians. LeRon L. Barton, a black man who spent over two decades in Tech, gave an insight on his work experiences. He said he saw no one who looked like him in his profession and said he received many comments that he believed disregarded his skill such as being called

8284-437: The metro area reached $ 176.7 billion in 2011, or $ 94,587 per capita, roughly on par with Qatar in both total GDP and per capita (nominal). GDP grew a strong 7.7% in 2011, and in contrast with most of California, GDP and per capita GDP (nominal) is well above 2007 (financial crisis) levels. Despite relative wealth vis a vis other regions nationally, a large underclass exists whose income is roughly equivalent to that elsewhere in

8393-655: 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

8502-484: The official US census) calculates a religious diversity score of 0.876 for Santa Clara County, where 1 represents complete diversity (each religious group of equal size) and 0 a total lack of diversity. Only four counties in the US have higher diversity scores than Santa Clara County. Santa Clara County has five elected supervisors , elected within their districts. The board appoints the County Executive, who

8611-474: The origins of Silicon Valley firms, including via investments from Fairchild 's eight co-founders. The key investors in Kleiner Perkins and Sequoia Capital were from the same group, directly leading to Tech Crunch 2014 estimate of 92 public firms of 130 related listed firms then worth over US$ 2.1 trillion with over 2,000 firms traced back to them. Another important pillar of the Valley's success

8720-594: The plurality of Santa Clara's population since 2014. As of 2013, Santa Clara County has the highest median household income of any county in California at $ 84,741. The 2010 United States census reported that Santa Clara County had a population of 1,781,642. The racial makeup of Santa Clara County was 836,616 (47.0%) White, 46,428 (2.6%) African American, 12,960 (0.7%) Native American, 7,060 (0.4%) Pacific Islander, 570,524 (32.0%) Asian, 220,806 (12.4%) from other races, and 87,248 (4.9%) from two or more races. Hispanics or Latinos of any race were 479,210 persons (26.9% of

8829-410: The population were Hispanic or Latino of any race. Of the 565,863 households, 34.9% had children under 18 living with them, 54.9% were married couples living together, 10.0% had a female householder with no husband present, and 30.1% were not families. About 21.4% of all households were made up of individuals, and 5.9% had someone living alone who was 65 or older. The average household size was 2.92, and

8938-496: The population). Demographic profile As of the census of 2000, 1,682,585 people, 565,863 households, and 395,538 families were residing in the county. The population density was 503/km (1,300/sq mi). The 579,329 housing units had an average density of 173/km (450/sq mi). The ethnic makeup of the county was 53.8% White, 2.8% African American, 0.7% Native American, 25.6% Asian, 0.3% Pacific Islander, 12.1% from other races, and 4.7% from two or more races. About 24.0% of

9047-440: 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

9156-528: 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

9265-554: 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

9374-542: The region employed about a half 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 term "Silicon Valley" came to have two definitions: a narrower geographic one, referring to Santa Clara County and southeastern San Mateo County , and

9483-427: The region's severe housing shortage and high housing prices. As of 2023, the low-income poverty threshold set by the California Department of Housing and Community Development for single-person households in the counties of San Francisco, San Mateo, and Marin was $ 104,400, followed by $ 96,000 for the county of Santa Clara. In contrast, the 2023 national low-income poverty threshold set by the U.S. Census Bureau for

9592-476: The service sector by value, but like any other county, Santa Clara has its share of retail and office support workers. The San Jose/Sunnyvale/Santa Clara metropolitan region, comprising Santa Clara County and San Benito County, was ranked as the highest performing metropolitan area in the US in 2012, ahead of Austin, Texas and Raleigh, North Carolina , according to the Milken Institute . The GDP of

9701-496: The size of three-year-old sheep. They are similar in appearance to the deer, except they have short horns and also short legs like the sheep. They live in the plains where they go in herds of 100, 200, or more. They run all together over the plains so fast that they seem to fly…These animals are called berrendos and there are many of them also in the southern Missions wherever the country is level." Herbert Eugene Bolton also wrote of elk reports from another Spanish expedition, from

9810-617: The south and west of the county. Both tule elk ( Cervus canadensis nannodes ) and pronghorn ( Antilocapra americana ) were historically native to Santa Clara County. In June 1776, Lieutenant Commander Don José Joaquín Moraga led a group of soldiers and colonists from the Presidio of Monterey to establish Mission San Francisco de Asis and encountered both tule elk and pronghorn, and clearly distinguished these two species from deer. The deer in California being California mule deer ( Odocoileus hemionus ). Regarding elk, Moraga wrote: "In

9919-835: The tech industry, "This is the next step in the civil rights movement" while T. J. Rodgers has argued against Jackson's assertions. According to a 2019 Lincoln Network survey, 48% of high-tech workers in Silicon Valley identify as Christians , with Roman Catholicism (27%) being its largest branch, followed by Protestantism (19%). The same study found that 16% of high-tech workers identify as nothing in particular, 11% as something else, 8% as Agnostics , and 7% as Atheists . Around 4% of high-tech workers in Silicon Valley identify as Jews or Buddhists , 3% as Hindus , 2% as Muslims and 1% as Satanists . The following Santa Clara County cities are traditionally considered to be in Silicon Valley (in alphabetical order): Santa Clara County, California Santa Clara County , officially

10028-577: The third-highest GDP per capita in the world (after Zürich , Switzerland and Oslo , Norway ), according to the Brookings Institution . As of June 2021, it also had the highest percentage of homes valued at $ 1 million or more in the United States. Silicon Valley is home to many of the world's largest high-tech corporations , including the headquarters of more than 30 businesses in the Fortune 1000 , and thousands of startup companies . Silicon Valley also accounts for one-third of all of

10137-616: The university leased portions of its land to high-tech firms. Terman nurtured companies like Hewlett-Packard , Varian Associates , Eastman Kodak , General Electric , Lockheed Corporation , and other high-tech firms, until what would become Silicon Valley grew up around the Stanford University campus. In 1951, to address the financial demands of Stanford's growth requirements, and to provide local employment-opportunities for graduating students, Frederick Terman proposed leasing Stanford's lands for use as an office park named

10246-467: The world as of 2015 behind Zürich and Oslo , according to the Brookings Institution . Located on the southern coast of San Francisco Bay , the urbanized Santa Clara Valley within Santa Clara County contains most of the county's population. More recently, extensive droughts in California , further complicated by drainage of the Anderson reservoir within the county for seismic repairs, have strained

10355-420: The world, and the booming economy resulted in severe traffic congestion . The PayPal Mafia is sometimes credited with inspiring the re-emergence of consumer-focused Internet companies after the dot-com bust of 2001. 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

10464-524: 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 1956, William Shockley , the co-inventor of the first working transistor (with John Bardeen and Walter Houser Brattain ), 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

10573-407: The world. Many headquarters of tech companies in Silicon Valley have become hotspots for tourism . "Silicon" refers to the chemical element used in silicon -based transistors and integrated circuit chips, which is the focus of a large number of computer hardware and software innovators and manufacturers in the region. The popularization of the name is often credited to Don Hoefler ,

10682-539: Was Silicon Valley Bank (SVB), founded in 1983 by a group of former Bank of America executives. Before its 2023 collapse , SVB specialized in providing banking services to Silicon Valley entrepreneurs and their startup firms. SVB's original primary commercial lending product was a working capital line of credit , secured by a startup's accounts receivable . In contrast to traditional banks, who focused their commercial lending on already-established businesses, SVB specialized in lending money to small startup companies in

10791-433: Was "the Valley of Heart’s Delight". Silicon Valley was born through the intersection of several contributing factors, including a skilled science research base housed in area universities, plentiful venture capital , permissive government regulation, and steady U.S. Department of Defense spending. Stanford University ’s leadership was especially important in the valley's early development. Together these elements formed

10900-524: Was $ 81,717. Males had a median income of $ 56,240 versus $ 40,574 for females. The per capita income for the county was $ 32,795. About 4.9% of families and 7.5% of the population were below the poverty line , including 8.4% of those under age 18 and 6.4% of those age 65 or over. Santa Clara County is among the most religiously diverse counties in the US. A 2020 census by the Public Religion Research Institute (unconnected to

11009-540: Was 9.4% in January 2009 and has decreased to a record low of 2.7% as of August 2019. But in April 2020, when unemployment was at its peak, it stood at 13.7% and has since fallen to 5.7% in July 2021. Silicon Valley received 41% of all U.S. venture investment in 2011, and 46% in 2012. During the period from 2019 to 2021, Silicon Valley's share of U.S. venture capital investment dropped to 35.9%, but had surged back to 41% as of

11118-492: Was coined in 1971. The trend accelerated in the 1980s and 1990s, and agriculture has since been nearly eliminated from the northern part of the county. Santa Clara County is the headquarters for about 6500 high-technology companies, including many of the world's largest such companies, including AMD , Nvidia , Cisco Systems , and Intel , computer and consumer electronics companies Apple Inc. and Hewlett-Packard, and internet companies eBay , Google , and Yahoo! . Most of what

11227-632: Was even more welcoming, with a group of venture capitalists actively seeking high-tech business ideas, clustered on Sand Hill Road in Menlo Park and Palo Alto . California 's civil code undermined the usual non-compete clauses that effectively tied employees to their companies in other states, allowing California workers to freely apply the knowledge they gained from their previous employer. This gave Silicon Valley an advantage over other American tech hubs such as Massachusetts Route 128 curving around Boston . The San Francisco Bay Area had long been

11336-679: Was female, and 3% was Hispanic and 1% was black. In August 2014, 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

11445-464: 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. Since the 1980s, Silicon Valley has been home to the largest concentration of venture capital firms in the world. In 1971, Don Hoefler traced

11554-504: 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 University 's Ethernet campus network . 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

11663-529: Was one of the original counties of California , formed in 1850 at the time of statehood. The original inhabitants included the Ohlone , residing on Coyote Creek and Calaveras Creek . Part of the county's territory was given to Alameda County in 1853. In 1882, Santa Clara County tried to levy taxes upon property of the Southern Pacific Railroad within county boundaries. The result was

11772-486: 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

11881-409: Was the area's largest employer from the 1950s into 1980s. Stanford University , its affiliates, and graduates have played a major role in the development of the culture of collaboration among high-tech companies. A powerful sense of regional solidarity shaped the outlook of inventors and engineers in California; contrasting markedly from the insular and competitive environment of engineering firms on

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