Facts about Silicon Valley

1. 08

   A 49-mile stretch of the San Andreas Fault runs beneath the region, prompting many tech campuses to be engineered with seismic base isolators.

   Silicon ValleyAug 26sharegeologyengineeringinfrastructure
2. 07

   The term 'Silicon Valley' was coined by journalist Don Hoefler in a 1971 series of articles published in the trade newspaper Electronic News.

   Silicon ValleyJun 8sharetechnologyhistorynaming
3. 06

   Stanford University's technology transfer policies in the 1950s allowed professors to consult with industry while retaining equity stakes, directly enabling the creation of over 25,000 companies worldwide that trace their origins to the campus.

   Silicon ValleyMay 14sharebusinesseducationtechnology
4. 05

   Apple's 1976 founding by Steve Jobs, Steve Wozniak, and Ronald Wayne in Los Gatos launched the personal computer revolution that transformed Silicon Valley into a global technology epicenter.

   Silicon ValleyMay 14sharetechnologybusiness1970s
5. 04

   Between 1995 and 2000, venture capital investments in Silicon Valley increased from $4 billion to $105 billion annually during the dot-com bubble.

   Silicon ValleyMay 14shareeconomicstechnologyhistory
6. 03

   Google's 1998 founding in a Stanford dorm room by Larry Page and Sergey Brin launched the search engine that would dominate Silicon Valley's rise to global technological prominence.

   Silicon ValleyMay 14sharetechnologybusinesshistory
7. 02

   Shockley Semiconductor Laboratory, founded by William Shockley in 1956 in Mountain View, directly spawned eight competing companies when key employees left to start their own ventures.

   Silicon ValleyMay 14sharetechnologybusinesshistory
8. 01

   In 1939, William Hewlett and David Packard founded their electronics company in a Palo Alto garage, establishing the foundation for Silicon Valley's birth as a technology hub.

   Silicon ValleyMay 14sharehistorytechnologybusiness