Economic Reports - Silicon Valley

Tech is back!

Here’s your “Did you Know” bit of trivia for today. Want to know how powerful Silicon Valley is?  Take a look at this chart.

GDP $535 billion
Fueled by investments in social media, mobile, cleantech, the Bay Area economy placed #19 with a GDP of $535 billion.

With a GDP of $535 billion, the San Francisco Bay Area comes in at #19, making it larger than the economies of Switzerland, Belgium, Taiwan and Sweden, among others. If it ever supplanted the United States at the top of the list, that could make for quite an interesting story.

The data was released by the Bay Area Council Economic Institute as part of their annual Economic Profile.

Not surprisingly, the region is becoming increasingly specialized in computer manufacturing, information, and services:

Specialization

Though the Bay Area (30 companies) trailed New York (45) when it came to HQ representation of Fortune 500 companies, it lead all others with 26 of the fastest growing.

Another interesting tidbit from the 68-page report that would likely make Michael Porter (heck, or Geoffrey Moore… let’s keep this thing local) is the mix of assets that create a vibrant culture for innovation:

Venn innovation

Read the entire report (68 pages) via the Bay Area Council Economic Institute.

Clinton Stark
Clinton shoots videos for Stark Insider. San Francisco Bay Area arts, Ingmar Bergman and French New Wave, and chasing the perfect home espresso shot 25 seconds at a time (and failing). Peloton: ClintTheMint. Camera: Video Gear