This progress can be traced to the location of Stanford University in Silicon Valley; Stanford engineering graduates chose to start their projects and early companies near the campus, and from there began the proliferation of computer companies in California.
Let’s find out the top 10 tech companies in California based on Fortune 500 in 2013. They are ranked according to their total revenues from the previous fiscal year.
1. Apple (Cupertino)
Revenues: $156.5 billionEmployees: 80,000
Apple is the number one tech company, not just in California, but also in the nation. It is still the leading brand despite Apple’s great hitches last year due to their Maps app failure and their contractors’ labor practices. As of May 2013, Apple has 408 retail stores in 14 countries, not counting their online Apple Store and iTunes Store, the world’s largest music retailer.
2. Hewlett-Packard (Palo Alto)
Revenues: $120.4 billionEmployees: 331,800
From a one-car garage in Palo Alto, HP has become the world’s leading PC manufacturer since 2007. However, the year 2012 was not easy for the world’s largest computer manufacturer because of their two $8 billion write-downs on botched acquisitions. CEO Meg Whitman is now moving the sails to a cloud computing as the market for HP’s PC and printer business has slowed down.
3. Intel (Santa Clara)
Revenues: $53.3 billionEmployees: 104,700
Based on revenue, Intel, or Integrated Electronics, is the world’s largest and highest valued semiconductor chip maker. Intel was only popular to engineers and technologists, but after its advertising campaign “Intel Inside” in the 1990s, it has made itself a household name.
4. Google (Mountain View)
Revenues: $52.2 billionEmployees: 44,777
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Google is known as a search engine but it has evolved into a chain of products including email (Gmail), office suite (Google Drive), social networking (Google+), web browsing (Google Chrome), and online advertising (AdWords). Moving on to hardware, Google has developed the Chromebook, partnered with Nexus and acquired Motorola to increase their communications hardware presence.
5. Cisco Systems (San Jose)
Revenues: $46.1 billionEmployees: 66,639
Cisco Systems designs, manufactures, and sells networking equipment. Its name “Cisco” was from the city of San Francisco, where it was founded by two members of the Stanford University computer support staff.
6. Ingram Micro (Santa Ana)
Revenues: $37.8 billionEmployees: 15,022
Ingram Micro sells their computer hardware and software to approximately 150 countries, and has been a leader in cloud computing services.
7. Oracle (Redwood City)
Revenues: $37.1 billionEmployees: 120,000
Oracle is known for its computer hardware systems and software products, and is the third largest software maker after Microsoft and IBM, based in Washington and New York, respectively.
8. Qualcomm (San Diego)
Revenues: $19.1 billionEmployees: 26,000
Qualcomm designs, manufactures, and markets digital wireless telecommunications products and services to 157 locations worldwide.
9. eBay (San Jose)
Revenues: $14.1 billionEmployees: 27,770
Founded in 1995 during the dot-com bubble period, eBay became a successful internet consumer-to-consumer corporation. eBay has turned into a household name as an online auction site and shopping website.
10. Western Digital (Irvine)
Revenues: $12.5 billionEmployees: 96,000
Western Digital is one of the world’s largest computer hard disk drive manufacturers, founded by Alvin Phillips, a Motorola employee. It started out selling calculator chips in the 1970s, but now it is expanding its business in Thailand with a $200 million investment.
Mike HallAbout the Author:
Mike Hall is a prolific writer of the latest technology news and trends. He is a contributing blogger for Data Recovery Group, recovering lost data across California since 1986. Visit their California office and let them do all the work for you!
