Silicon Valley

American  

noun

1. the area in northern California, southwest of San Francisco in the Santa Clara valley region, where many of the high-technology design and manufacturing companies in the semiconductor industry are concentrated.

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Silicon Valley British  

noun

1. an industrial strip in W California, extending S of San Francisco, in which the US information technology industry is concentrated

2. any area in which industries associated with information technology are concentrated

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Silicon Valley Cultural  

1. A region on the San Francisco Peninsula in California where the miniaturized electronics industry is centered, so called because most of the devices built there are made of semiconductors such as silicon.

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The term is often used as a catchword to describe the development of high-tech industry (see also high-tech): “If we can attract this corporation to our town, we could become another Silicon Valley.”

Etymology

Origin of Silicon Valley

So called from the silicon wafers employed in semiconductor devices

Example Sentences

The hosts have both founded other companies and do not try to hide that they’re good buddies with lots of important Silicon Valley people.

From Slate • Apr. 7, 2026

Put simply, most of the world's high-end, powerful computer chips - the ones used by Silicon Valley firms to fuel the creation of LLMs - are controlled by America.

From BBC • Apr. 7, 2026

The episode exposed a fault line in Silicon Valley between engineers who viewed autonomous targeting as an ethical red line and defense officials who saw it as essential.

From Barron's • Apr. 5, 2026

Within Silicon Valley, it is battling for mind-share among young startup founders, software engineers and tech executives whose perceptions are largely shaped by what they see on social media—specifically X.

From The Wall Street Journal • Apr. 3, 2026

He grew up in Mountain View, California, just south of San Francisco, which is the absolute epicenter of Silicon Valley.

From "Outliers" by Malcolm Gladwell