Silicon Valley is the combined name for the cities and towns south of San Francisco which came to be in the Palo Alto, Menlo Park and Stanford University area. It is surrounded by Santa Cruz mountains to the west, Redwood city to the north and San Francisco Bay on the east. The south end of the Silicon Valley borders the cities Los Altos, Mountain View, Sunnyvale, Cupertino, Santa Clara, and San Jose.
When it comes to tech, Silicon Valley is definitely the place to be. Tech companies in this part of the world out-produce practically every single nation, turning over approximately $128,308 per capita in yearly GDP.
Here, we’ll look at the rise of the largest tech hub in the world and its impact on the global economy.
How it all started
Silicon Valley hasn’t always been renowned for its tech industry. In fact, the Santa Clara Valley was initially known for its cherry, prune and apricot orchards in the 1960’s. It’s only been in the last 30 years that the area has developed its Silicon Valley tech reputation.
The most prominent companies based at the Silicon Valley are Apple, Facebook, Google and most recently, Netflix, but not limited to that. Tesla, Twitter, Yahoo! and eBay also belong to the Valley. The list continues with companies such as Cisco, Hewlett-Packard, Intel, Adobe and Zynga.
It is thought to have become so successful due to the cooperation of its tech founders. Many actually went to school together, so they frequently cooperated with one another to develop innovative tech solutions. Today, there are over 2000 tech companies in the area.
One of the reasons frequently overlooked the growth of Silicon Valley is its openness to cultural diversity. More than the half of the start-ups in the period 1995-2005 were actually founded by migrants. The Valley is a place attractive to some of the best engineers that the world knows from countries such as India and China. The spirit of cooperation is indeed a key factor that helped the Valley grow.
Another important factor is the proximity of high profile universities around the Valley such as the University of California at Berkeley, San Jose State alongside a number of community colleges.
Silicon Valley today
Silicon Valley remains the most important tech hub in the world. The region is responsible for introducing some of the most important pieces of tech in the world. It’s brought us microprocessing, integrated circuits and microcomputers to name just a few technologies. Many of the components you’ll find from stores such as RS Components, were developed in Silicon Valley.
Even today, new tech companies are being developed within the Valley. Nurx is one of the companies to watch this year, offering a tool which allows women to order birth control prescriptions quickly and easily. Shippo is another company currently hitting the headlines in Silicon Valley. The company is producing cloud-based shipping software, enabling users to get quotes, print off shipping labels and track packages.
Its impact on the global economy
Silicon Valley has become extremely important for the world’s economy. Given it’s where the majority of tech profit is made, it contributes to over half of the world’s economy. This is an impressive feat when you consider the size of it compared to the rest of the world. While changes are occurring in the tech sector, it’s unlikely Silicon Valley will lose its place as the world leader in the tech industry.
Overall, Silicon Valley is extremely important to the world’s economy. It’s become the most prominent tech hub of the world and shows no signs of slowing down. However, there will be challenges in the coming years due to competition from countries such as China.
