Tagesausflug ins Silicon Valley — Stanford, Tech-Kultur & die Halbinsel
Silicon Valley — the colloquial name for the southern San Francisco Bay Area, roughly corresponding to Santa Clara County, that has been the global centre of the technology industry and venture capital since the 1970s, when the semiconductor industry established itself in the region and the combination of Stanford University's engineering programmes, a culture of entrepreneurial risk-taking, and available venture capital created the conditions for the most productive innovation ecosystem in modern economic history.
- 1
Stanford University — The Engine of Silicon Valley
Stanford University (450 Serra Mall, Palo Alto, 8,180 acres, the 6th most valuable university endowment in the world at $36.3 billion, founded 1885 by Leland Stanford) is the primary institutional source of Silicon Valley — Google (Larry Page and Sergey Brin, Stanford PhDs, 1998), Hewlett-Packard (the original Silicon Valley company, Packard garage at 367 Addison Avenue, Palo Alto, 1938), Yahoo (Jerry Yang and David Filo, Stanford PhDs, 1994), and Netflix, Instagram, and Snapchat all have Stanford founders; the campus (free daily tours from the Main Quad visitor center) includes the Cantor Arts Center (free) and the Dish antenna (hiking trail, free).
- 2
Computer History Museum — The World's Most Important Technology Archive
The Computer History Museum (1401 N Shoreline Blvd, Mountain View, $25 adults, daily 10am–5pm) is the definitive collection of computing hardware, software, and culture — the permanent 'Revolution: The First 2000 Years of Computing' exhibition spans from the abacus to the smartphone; key artifacts: the Apple I (the original 1976 circuit board built in Steve Jobs's garage in Los Altos, one of the 6 surviving examples), the Cray-1 supercomputer (1977, the world's fastest computer for 5 years, the cylindrical design was a cooling solution), and the Google server racks (original 1998 hardware).
- 3
Googleplex — Mountain View Campus Public Access
Google's main campus (1600 Amphitheatre Parkway, Mountain View, 'Googleplex') is partially accessible to the public — the Android sculpture garden (the large outdoor statues of Android mascots representing each OS version from Cupcake to Tiramisu, displayed in chronological order) is free and open to the public; the Google visitor center (Google Merchandise Store, 1981 Landings Drive, open weekdays) sells official Google merchandise; the cafeteria (for employees and guests only) serves 20,000+ meals per day across 30 campus restaurants; the free Google employee bikes (coloured bikes for campus transport) are visible from the street.
- 4
Venture Capital Row — Sand Hill Road
Sand Hill Road (Menlo Park, the 2-mile stretch from I-280 to the Juniper Serra corridor) is the most important street in the global technology economy — Sequoia Capital, Andreessen Horowitz, Kleiner Perkins, and 25+ other major venture capital firms have offices on or adjacent to Sand Hill Road; the firms (operating from anonymous low-rise office parks) collectively manage $500+ billion in capital; the pedestrian and cycling path along Sand Hill Road allows public access to the vicinity; the Sand Hill Exchange restaurant (2600 Sand Hill, the lunch spot for VC partners and tech founders) is accessible to the public.
- 5
Caltrain — The Commuter Rail of the Tech Corridor
Caltrain (the San Francisco–San José commuter rail, 77km, 29 stations, operating since 1863 under various names, electrified 2024) is the transport backbone of Silicon Valley — the morning northbound and evening southbound trains from San José and Palo Alto to San Francisco carry 50,000+ tech workers per day; the 'Baby Bullet' express (San Francisco to San José in 57 minutes with 5 intermediate stops) is the fastest connection; Caltrain is undergoing a $2.3 billion electrification and modernization program; the Palo Alto and Mountain View stations are walking distance from major tech campuses.
- 6
Apple Park — The Ring Campus in Cupertino
Apple Park (One Apple Park Way, Cupertino, 2.8 million sq ft, $5 billion construction cost, 2017, Norman Foster architect) is visible from the Steve Jobs Theater viewpoint (the rooftop above the underground theater where iPhone announcements are made) — the Apple Visitor Center (10600 N Tantau Avenue, Cupertino, daily 9am–6pm, free, the public face of Apple Park) has an augmented reality model of the campus (using the iPad in the visitor center), a cafe, and the retail store; the campus itself (the 'Spaceship', a perfect circle of glass and steel in a 175-acre orchard park) is not publicly accessible.