The headquarters of Apple Inc., Google, Yahoo!, Facebook, eBay, Pixar, Cisco Systems, Hewlett-Packard, Intel, Adobe Systems and dozens of other high-tech companies are located in this region in the South Bay section of the San Francisco Bay Area also known as the Santa Clara Valley. The nickname Silicon Valley was first conceived by businessman Ralph Vaerst and his friend Don Hoefler in 1971 and became more common in the 1980s for the area that was home to companies using silicon to make semiconductors. Stanford University, its research center and its graduates contributed greatly to the development of Silicon Valley. Show All
