Santa Clara is at the center of Silicon Valley, the world’s technology center. Over the years, Silicon Valley has become a hotbed of innovation and commerce. Santa Clara saw its greatest change after World War II when the Cold War era began. In response to the Cold War, new defense-related industries started up in the valley. Manufacturing radio, radar, missiles and electric circuits took over agriculture as the primary industry in the area. Stanford University became a hub for science and technology inventions. The adoption of technology in corporate products and services accelerated the transformation of Santa Clara from farming center to a technology leader.
Santa Clara also experienced a housing boom after World War II when veterans and their families came for job opportunities in the defense industry. Land was affordable and before long agricultural tracts were soon converted by the City into single family ranch style homes. The population grew from 6,650 residents in 1940 to 58,850 in 1960. By its Sesquicentennial in 2002, Santa Clara had grown to a population of 104,300.
High Technology Growth
The technology industry has been the primary force behind Santa Clara's growth since the late 1960s. Many large international corporations located their headquarters to Santa Clara including Intel, National Semiconductor and Applied Materials. Today Santa Clara companies cover the manufacturing, software and telecommunications, hospitality, entertainment, business and consumer services, government, non profit, education, and media and Internet industries. The companies in Santa Clara develop and build microprocessors, computer software and hardware, communication products, and biotechnology.
The term "Silicon Valley" was used first by journalist Don C. Hoefler in 1971to when he wrote a series of articles wrote for Electronic News, a weekly industrial paper.
An economic profile of the city is available at the city’s website describing the city’s facilities and the data on the workforce.
Economy
Several fortune 100 and 500 companies have their headquarters here in Santa Clara. McAfee, Affymetrix, Agilent Technologies, Applied Materials, Atheros, Extreme Networks, Intel, Intevac, McAfee, National Semiconductor, Namco Bandai Games, Nvidia, OmniVision Technologies, PMC-Sierra, Rovi, Synaptics, Marvell Technology Group and Trident Microsystems are some the companies headquartered in Santa Clara.
The Top employers in Santa Clara in 2010 were Intel, Kaiser Permanente, Applied Materials, Oracle, Nvidia, BAE Systems Land & Armaments, National Semiconductor, Agilent Technologies, Santa Clara University, and Pacific Maintenance Company.
The current trend for businesses is biotechnology, mobile, Internet, green businesses, and social ventures.
San Francisco 49ers
When the San Francisco 49ers finally signed on to move to Santa Clara, the city was elated. It was the end of a long process to win the baseball team and have it make Santa Clara its home. The prestige and economic opportunity for the city was unprecedented. In May, ground was broken for the new football stadium in the city of Santa Clara.
The stadium will be a state-of-the art arena that combines the best sporting facility with an environmentally friendly design that will give fans the best experience.
At this time, the new Santa Clara Stadium is under construction. In 2014 the stadium will open in time for the 2014 football season.
