How Silicon Valley has become a $3 trillion asset - It all starts from a story!

How did Silicon Valley become a $3 trillion area? 

It all starts with a story - and this narrative starts with Mr and Mrs Leland Stanford 

Early 19th century was farmland 

1885 - Mr and Mrs Leiland Stanford set up Stanford University in memory of their son who died at Harvard. There is a great narrative how they arrived at the Harvard Presidents office in threadbare clothes- and was ignored by the secretary - eventually after a few hours - was “granted an audience” - and offered to erect a memorial in the form of a building . The president , looking at their clothes said - “it’s very expensive you know .... Harvard’s buildings cost $7m - at which Mrs Stanford whispered to her husband “is that all that is needed to set up a University? - and they moved to Palo Alto and set up Stanford!

1930s navy built an aerospace hub - scientists and smart people moved to area 

1939 HP founded there - got government contract making radar and artillery 

1940s - at Bell labs - William Shockley co-invented the transistor. Transistor became computer processor

1956 - Shockley set up silicon labs - employed grads from Stanford 

1958 - 8 employees left to create Fairchild semiconductors - became known as the “traitorous 8” -made computer components for Apollo programme 

1960s - Gordon Moore and Robert Noyce 2 of the 8 founded intel on a one page business plan 

Late 60s - 2 other of the 8 founded Kleiner Perkins 

1969 - government research project with Vint Cerf - that went on to become the internet 

1970 - Xerox set up in Palo Alto

1971 - Don Hoefler set up Silicon Valley Times - and the name Stuck!

Lots of stuff around Stanford research

1980s - Atari, Apple and Oracle founded

1990s - Ebay, yahoo ., Paypal and google

2000 - 2002 - dot com crash - I remember seeing empty building after enoty building!

2003 - 2018  - Facebook , Uber , Twitter and Tesla 

2018 - 2030 - ????

2030 - 2050 - ????