A readable snapshot of the companies, jobs, and funding rounds shaping the local tech economy.
Santa Clara County, est. Q1 2026
25K local jobs each at Googleplex & Apple Park
142 South Bay startup rounds · AI, chips, security, robotics, cloud led the way
Applied Materials + KLA powering the AI fab boom from Santa Clara
Google25K—
Apple25K—
Intel14K▼
Cisco12K▼
Applied Materials12K—
LinkedIn8K▼
NVIDIA7K▲
ServiceNow6K▲
Adobe5K—
PayPal5K▼
AMD5K▲SCC local jobs only; global headcount is much larger. Bars are scaled to the top employer.
142 tracked rounds this year, led by AI, chips, security, robotics, cloud. The list below keeps the latest notable announcements close without turning the page into a funding archive.
Palo Alto's Vinci helps hardware engineers simulate heat flow, cooling, and material warping in chip and circuit-board designs before manufacturing. Advent, Temasek, and Xora co-led its $250M Series B at a $1.5B valuation. The company plans to expand beyond semiconductors, develop its engineering software, and grow its team and computing capacity.
Palo Alto's Turba Labs builds software that helps data-center operators get more useful AI work from the GPUs, memory, and networks they already have. It predicts how workloads will perform and adjusts how computing resources are assigned. Creandum and Cusp Capital led its latest financing, bringing total funding across seed and Series A rounds to $52M; the latest round's amount was not separately disclosed.
Palo Alto's Clockwork.io makes software that keeps AI training and inference jobs running when GPUs or network links fail, instead of restarting and wasting compute. Premji Invest, Wing Venture Capital, and Seligman Ventures co-led its $31M round, with NEA and e& Capital returning. LinkedIn, Together AI, and WhiteFiber are customers. Total funding is now $73M.
Satlyt, whose U.S. headquarters is in Sunnyvale, makes software that lets satellites process images and system data and run AI onboard. Non Sibi Ventures led its $8M seed round. The money will expand engineering and customer delivery teams and support more deployments on other operators' spacecraft. Its software already runs on individual satellites; sharing computing resources across multiple spacecraft is still a longer-term goal.
Palo Alto's PaleBlueDot AI provides GPU computing power through its own clusters, a marketplace, and services that run AI models on demand. ComputeCore led its $200M Series C at a $3.2B valuation, with B Capital participating. The company plans to expand computing capacity and invest in engineering and sales teams.
Palo Alto's Armadin runs AI agents that attack a company's own systems the way real hackers would, chaining vulnerabilities from initial break-in through to cloud compromise so they can be fixed first. Led by Mandiant founder Kevin Mandia, it raised a $255.5M Series B co-led by Andreessen Horowitz and Accel at a valuation above $2.5B, seven months after launching. Total funding is now $445M.
Palo Alto's CScale is building optical links for large AI data centers, designed to keep processors working when a connection fails. It emerged from stealth with a $145M Series C co-led by Atreides Management, Valor Equity Partners, and Premji Invest, with NVIDIA and Intel Capital joining as strategic investors. The company has about 85 employees worldwide; the funding supports product development and commercialization.
Mountain View's GMI Cloud rents out GPU computing power and runs AI models for businesses and developers. ARCHIV led its $223M Series B, with NVIDIA participating. A separate $445M credit facility led by CTBC brings the financing package to $668M. The company plans to use the money to expand capacity in the U.S., Taiwan, and the rest of Asia-Pacific, grow its AI services, and support hiring.
Search, cloud, AI, and advertising. A major campus presence in the South Bay.
25K at Googleplex + SCC offices; 127 local jobs cut on WARN filings since mid-2025, down from 752 in FY2023-24
Consumer hardware, software, and services. One Apple Park Way, Cupertino.
25K at Apple Park + SCC offices; no local WARN filing since March 2024, when 614 Santa Clara jobs went across eight sites
CPU pioneer mid-restructuring under CEO Lip-Bu Tan. Once the defining company of Silicon Valley.
14K in SCC; 996 Santa Clara jobs cut on WARN filings since July 2025, more than in any full year EDD has published
Enterprise networking, security, and observability. Its North San Jose campus is one of the city's biggest private employers.
12K at SJ HQ + SCC offices; 547 local jobs cut on WARN filings since August 2025, and filings in 11 of the last 12 years
Semiconductor manufacturing equipment used across advanced logic and memory production.
12K at Santa Clara HQ + SCC campus; 363 local jobs cut in October 2025, its first Santa Clara WARN round in twelve years
Professional network and recruiting platform. Microsoft-owned, headquartered in Sunnyvale.
8K across the Sunnyvale–Mountain View campus; 477 jobs cut effective July 13, 2026, a fourth straight year of filings
GPUs and AI accelerators. The defining company of the current AI era. Santa Clara's crown jewel.
7K at Santa Clara HQ + SCC offices; growing with AI GPU demand
Enterprise workflow automation. The quiet giant of South Bay SaaS.
6K at Santa Clara HQ; still growing on 20%+ revenue, though 208 Lawson Lane roles went on its first filings in twelve years
Growing headcount — AI hardware demand lifting chipmakers and server builders, with security and SaaS also expanding
NVIDIASanta Clara7K at Santa Clara HQ + SCC offices; growing with AI GPU demandServiceNowSanta Clara6K at Santa Clara HQ; still growing on 20%+ revenue, though 208 Lawson Lane roles went on its first filings in twelve yearsAMDSanta Clara5K at Santa Clara HQ; MI350 GPUs plus multi-year OpenAI and Meta deals drive data center growth
Palo Alto NetworksSanta Clara4K at Santa Clara HQ; growing with security platform consolidation winsStable or post-restructuring — open roles but no broad expansion
GoogleMountain View25K at Googleplex + SCC offices; 127 local jobs cut on WARN filings since mid-2025, down from 752 in FY2023-24AppleCupertino25K at Apple Park + SCC offices; no local WARN filing since March 2024, when 614 Santa Clara jobs went across eight sitesApplied MaterialsSanta Clara12K at Santa Clara HQ + SCC campus; 363 local jobs cut in October 2025, its first Santa Clara WARN round in twelve yearsAdobeSan Jose5K at SJ HQ; steady headcount as Anil Chakravarthy prepares to become CEO on Dec. 1Shrinking or restructuring locally — limited openings, cautious on headcount
IntelSanta Clara14K in SCC; 996 Santa Clara jobs cut on WARN filings since July 2025, more than in any full year EDD has publishedCiscoSan Jose12K at SJ HQ + SCC offices; 547 local jobs cut on WARN filings since August 2025, and filings in 11 of the last 12 yearsLinkedInSunnyvale8K across the Sunnyvale–Mountain View campus; 477 jobs cut effective July 13, 2026, a fourth straight year of filingsPayPalSan Jose5K at SJ HQ; second CEO change in three years after branded checkout stalled
Its Corsair in-memory compute chip targets AI inference at the data center edge. Microsoft-backed; raised a $275M Series C in late 2025 at a $2B valuation (~$450M total) to take on NVIDIA on inference.
AI lab building general world models: causal, multimodal systems that simulate physical environments for robotics, science, gaming, healthcare, and defense. Raised a $310M Series B at a $1.45B valuation in June 2026, with Amazon, AMD Ventures, GV, EQT, and IQT joining Natural Capital.
Sells the building blocks of a custom AI chip: ready-made chiplets for connectivity, power, and memory, plus a platform that takes a design from architecture through manufacturing. Came out of stealth in July 2026 with $43M.
Humanoid robots for real warehouse and factory work, now mass-produced at its BotQ factory in San Jose. Raised $1B+ in a 2025 Series C at a $39B valuation, with backing from NVIDIA, Intel Capital, Qualcomm, and Salesforce. Its earlier Figure 02 robots finished an 11-month run at BMW's Spartanburg plant in late 2025, helping build more than 30,000 X3s.
Norwegian-founded humanoid robot company building NEO for home use and EVE for commercial deployments. NEO went into full-scale production at its Hayward factory in April 2026, priced at $20,000 or $499 a month, with first US home deliveries promised this year. US headquarters in Palo Alto.
Redesigns the AI data center network from scratch — one high-radix switch layer instead of three, cutting latency and power for hyperscale AI. Emerged from stealth March 2026 with $200M+ Series A.
Building Memo, a household robot that does dishes, laundry, and tidying. Raised $165M Series B at $1.15B valuation in March 2026; beta launches late 2026 with 3,000+ people on the waitlist.
Builds the perception stack robots use to see and move safely — custom silicon, multimodal sensors, and spatial software. Entered production in 2026 and raised a $165M Series C at a $1.6B valuation.
AI chip startup building LLM training processors claimed to be 10× more efficient than Nvidia GPUs. Founded by ex-Google hardware engineers; $500M Series B in Feb 2026.
Agentic AI cybersecurity platform bridging IT and OT security — autonomous threat detection and response at machine speed. $125M in March 2026.
Industrial robotics foundation model trained on internet-scale video, enabling factory and logistics robots to adapt in real-world conditions. $450M Series A, $1.7B valuation.
Built the LPU inference chip, then licensed the technology to NVIDIA in a non-exclusive December 2025 deal reported at roughly $20B — one that took founder Jonathan Ross, president Sunny Madra, and much of the staff to NVIDIA with it. Groq stayed independent and rebuilt around the cloud instead of the silicon, running inference for more than six million developers under CEO Adam Winter.
