O Silicon Valley is a region in the state of California, in the United States, known for being home to the largest technology companies in the world. Among them are AppleFacebook, Nvidia, Amazon, MicrosoftUber, Alphabet (controller of Google), Intel, Electronic Arts, Yahoo!, Netflixamong many others.
The region began to attract residents in 1840, when gold was discovered in San Francisco. However, the people who went there did not get rich as desired, and turned to entrepreneurship to earn income. The creation of Stanford technology and industrial parks they were also fundamental to innovation in Silicon Valley.
As a reference place for innovation, Silicon Valley carries stories and curiosities. Read the following statements about the region and try to decide whether they are true or false.
Apple was the first company in Silicon Valley
Myth. The pioneering Silicon Valley company was Hewlett-Packard, better known as HP, created by William Hewlett and David Packard, who were students at Stanford University. It was in 1938, inside a garage in the Californian city of Palo Alto, that the company’s first device was created. To this day, this garage is a tourist attraction in the region.
Facebook and Google were not founded in Silicon Valley
True. Many technology companies were founded in other regions of the United States and, due to Silicon Valley’s reference in innovation, ended up moving there. Facebook, for example, was founded in 2004 by Mark Zuckerberg, together with Brazilian Eduardo Saverin, Andrew McCollum, Chris Hughes and Dustin Moskovitz, in a dormitory at Harvard University, located in the city of Cambridge, Massachusetts. Google was created by Larry Page and Sergey Brin at Stanford University, which is close to Silicon Valley, in 1998.
Like Disney, Google was founded in a garage
Myth. The tradition of successful companies being founded in garages dates back to the founding of Disney, which was created in 1923 by brothers Walt and Roy Disney, inside their uncle’s garage in Los Angeles. Google is also believed to have been created in a garage in suburban Menlo Park, California. In fact, the Google interface was created in 1996 at Stanford University, as an exclusive interface for the educational institution. Two years later, they decided to expand the project, create a company and moved their headquarters to the garage of Susan Wojcicki, former executive director of YouTube. The house, which is now owned by Facebook, is furnished and decorated as if it were the place where everything about Google began.
Steve Jobs once worked at HP
True. In 1967, a 12-year-old boy called HP asking for components to make a frequency counter. That kid was Steve Jobs, who grew up in Silicon Valley after his family moved to the area. One of HP’s founders, Hewlett, was impressed by Jobs and offered him a summer job. “He [Hawlett] got me a job at the place where they [contadores de frequência] were built. I was in paradise”, said the Apple founder about working at HP, in an interview.
If Silicon Valley were a country, it would be the third richest in the world
Myth. Technology companies generate a lot of wealth for Silicon Valley. According to the United States Bureau of Economic Analysis, Silicon Valley, if it were a country, would actually be the second richest country in the world. The per capita income of its residents, according to 2020 data, is US$128,000.
* Under the supervision of Maria Carolina Abe
Tags: April Fools Day discover myths truths Silicon Valley main technological hubs world Technology
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