Stanford Research Park (SRP) is a
technology park established in 1951 as a joint initiative between
Stanford University
Leland Stanford Junior University, commonly referred to as Stanford University, is a Private university, private research university in Stanford, California, United States. It was founded in 1885 by railroad magnate Leland Stanford (the eighth ...
and the
City of Palo Alto.
It was the world's first university research park.
It has more than 150 companies, including
Hewlett-Packard
The Hewlett-Packard Company, commonly shortened to Hewlett-Packard ( ) or HP, was an American multinational information technology company. It was founded by Bill Hewlett and David Packard in 1939 in a one-car garage in Palo Alto, California ...
,
Tesla Motors
Tesla, Inc. ( or ) is an American multinational automotive and clean energy company. Headquartered in Austin, Texas, it designs, manufactures and sells battery electric vehicles (BEVs), stationary battery energy storage devices from hom ...
,
TIBCO and
VMware; previous high-profile tenants include
Steve Jobs
Steven Paul Jobs (February 24, 1955 – October 5, 2011) was an American businessman, inventor, and investor best known for co-founding the technology company Apple Inc. Jobs was also the founder of NeXT and chairman and majority shareholder o ...
's
NeXT Computer
NeXT Computer (also called the NeXT Computer System) is a workstation computer that was developed, marketed, and sold by NeXT Inc. It was introduced in October 1988 as the company's first and flagship product, at a price of , aimed at the high ...
,
Xerox PARC
Future Concepts division (formerly Palo Alto Research Center, PARC and Xerox PARC) is a research and development company in Palo Alto, California. It was founded in 1969 by Jacob E. "Jack" Goldman, chief scientist of Xerox Corporation, as a div ...
, and
Facebook
Facebook is a social media and social networking service owned by the American technology conglomerate Meta Platforms, Meta. Created in 2004 by Mark Zuckerberg with four other Harvard College students and roommates, Eduardo Saverin, Andre ...
.
It has been called "an engine for
Silicon Valley
Silicon Valley is a region in Northern California that is a global center for high technology and innovation. Located in the southern part of the San Francisco Bay Area, it corresponds roughly to the geographical area of the Santa Clara Valley ...
" and "the epicenter of Silicon Valley".
Facilities
The park covers a area and has 10 million square feet of
commercial real estate
Commercial property, also called commercial real estate, investment property or income property, is real estate (buildings or land) intended to generate a profit, either from capital gains or rental income. Commercial property includes office bu ...
in an area surrounding
Page Mill Road, south west of
El Camino Real and extending beyond
Foothill Expressway
There are 21 routes assigned to the "G" zone of the California Route Marker Program, which designates county routes in California. The "G" zone includes county highways in Monterey County, California, Monterey, San Benito County, California, Sa ...
to Arastradero Road.
[ This report also includes a map of the research park] By January 2018, the park's 140 buildings house over 150 different companies
and their 23,000 employees.
It is currently home to companies like
Hewlett-Packard
The Hewlett-Packard Company, commonly shortened to Hewlett-Packard ( ) or HP, was an American multinational information technology company. It was founded by Bill Hewlett and David Packard in 1939 in a one-car garage in Palo Alto, California ...
,
Lockheed Martin
The Lockheed Martin Corporation is an American Arms industry, defense and aerospace manufacturer with worldwide interests. It was formed by the merger of Lockheed Corporation with Martin Marietta on March 15, 1995. It is headquartered in North ...
,
Tesla Motors
Tesla, Inc. ( or ) is an American multinational automotive and clean energy company. Headquartered in Austin, Texas, it designs, manufactures and sells battery electric vehicles (BEVs), stationary battery energy storage devices from hom ...
,
Nest
A nest is a structure built for certain animals to hold Egg (biology), eggs or young. Although nests are most closely associated with birds, members of all classes of vertebrates and some invertebrates construct nests. They may be composed of ...
,
Skype
Skype () was a proprietary telecommunications application operated by Skype Technologies, a division of Microsoft, best known for IP-based videotelephony, videoconferencing and voice calls. It also had instant messaging, file transfer, ...
,
TIBCO and
SAP
Sap is a fluid transported in the xylem cells (vessel elements or tracheids) or phloem sieve tube elements of a plant. These cells transport water and nutrients throughout the plant.
Sap is distinct from latex, resin, or cell sap; it is a s ...
.
VMware is the park's largest tenant as of January 2018.
In 2016, SRP contributed an estimated $775 million in terms of economic activity to
Palo Alto
Palo Alto ( ; Spanish language, Spanish for ) is a charter city in northwestern Santa Clara County, California, United States, in the San Francisco Bay Area, named after a Sequoia sempervirens, coastal redwood tree known as El Palo Alto.
Th ...
and approximately $2.4 billion to
Santa Clara County
Santa Clara County, officially the County of Santa Clara, is the sixth-most populous county in the U.S. state of California, with a population of 1,936,259 as of the 2020 census. Santa Clara County and neighboring San Benito County form the ...
. In 2016, SRP contributed more than $45 million in taxes (across local, state, and federal).
History
After
World War II
World War II or the Second World War (1 September 1939 – 2 September 1945) was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War II, Allies and the Axis powers. World War II by country, Nearly all of the wo ...
,
Stanford University
Leland Stanford Junior University, commonly referred to as Stanford University, is a Private university, private research university in Stanford, California, United States. It was founded in 1885 by railroad magnate Leland Stanford (the eighth ...
found itself in difficult financial circumstances.
But given that it was rich in land,
Stanford University
Leland Stanford Junior University, commonly referred to as Stanford University, is a Private university, private research university in Stanford, California, United States. It was founded in 1885 by railroad magnate Leland Stanford (the eighth ...
Provost and Dean of Engineering
Frederick Terman
Frederick Emmons Terman (; June 7, 1900 – December 19, 1982) was an American professor and academic administrator. He was the dean of the school of engineering from 1944 to 1958 and provost from 1955 to 1965 at Stanford University. He is widely ...
proposed a Stanford-affiliated and
R&D-focused
business park
A business park or office park is a designated area of land in which many office buildings are grouped together. These types of developments are often located in suburban areas where land and building costs are more affordable, and are typically ...
that would generate income for Stanford as well as tax revenue for the
Palo Alto
Palo Alto ( ; Spanish language, Spanish for ) is a charter city in northwestern Santa Clara County, California, United States, in the San Francisco Bay Area, named after a Sequoia sempervirens, coastal redwood tree known as El Palo Alto.
Th ...
community. Stanford University and the City of Palo Alto partnered to found the park, which was initially named Stanford Industrial Park.
In 1951, the initiative was authorized and 209 acres were allocated. In 1953,
Varian Associates
Varian Associates was one of the first high-tech companies in Silicon Valley. It was founded in 1948 by Russell H. and Sigurd F. Varian, William Webster Hansen, and Edward Ginzton to sell the klystron, the first vacuum tube which could amp ...
moved in as the park's first tenant.
In the early days, Stanford tightly controlled development, without the help of an outside developer. It also rigorously screened potential tenants to ensure they were in line with university objectives. By 1956,
Hewlett-Packard
The Hewlett-Packard Company, commonly shortened to Hewlett-Packard ( ) or HP, was an American multinational information technology company. It was founded by Bill Hewlett and David Packard in 1939 in a one-car garage in Palo Alto, California ...
established its world headquarters in SRP. The park acquired more land as it grew from 40 tenants in 1960 to 100 tenants in 1985 to over 150 by January 2018.
The name was changed in the 1970s to Stanford Research Park to highlight "the focus of cooperation between the university and the tech companies".
In 1991, the Stanford Management Company was established to manage the university's financial and real estate assets, including SRP.
Controversies
In 2014, the Palo Alto City Council allowed a proposed
affordable housing
Affordable housing is housing which is deemed affordable to those with a household income at or below the median, as rated by the national government or a local government by a recognized housing affordability index. Most of the literature on ...
community with 180 units in the Stanford Research Park to proceed, despite protests by neighborhood residents. The community opened in June 2017.
In 2016,
Stanford University
Leland Stanford Junior University, commonly referred to as Stanford University, is a Private university, private research university in Stanford, California, United States. It was founded in 1885 by railroad magnate Leland Stanford (the eighth ...
and twelve of the park's largest companies formed the Transportation Management Association in order to mitigate
traffic congestion
Traffic congestion is a condition in transport that is characterized by slower speeds, longer trip times, and increased vehicular queueing. Traffic congestion on urban road networks has increased substantially since the 1950s, resulting in m ...
from employee commutes, noting that it was making companies within the park less attractive to current and prospective employees. SRP lacks a nearby
Caltrain
Caltrain (reporting mark JPBX) is a commuter rail line in California, serving the San Francisco Peninsula and Santa Clara Valley (Silicon Valley). The southern terminus is in San Jose, California, San Jose at the Tamien station with weekday r ...
station. The group is exploring several options, including "new shuttles,
carpool
Carpooling is the sharing of Automobile, car journeys so that more than one person travels in a car, and prevents the need for others to have to drive to a location themselves. Carpooling is considered a Demand-Responsive Transport (DRT) serv ...
routes and a trip-planning app".
Tenants
The following tenants currently have offices at the Stanford Research Park:
*
Arc Institute
Arc Institute is a nonprofit biomedical research organization based in Palo Alto, California. It was co-founded by Stanford University biochemistry professor Silvana Konermann, UC Berkeley bioengineering professor Patrick Hsu, and Stripe, Inc., ...
*
Broadcom
Broadcom Inc. is an American multinational corporation, multinational designer, developer, manufacturer, and global supplier of a wide range of semiconductor and infrastructure software products. Broadcom's product offerings serve the data cen ...
*
Tesla
*
Dupont
Dupont, DuPont, Du Pont, duPont, or du Pont may refer to:
People
* Dupont (surname) Dupont, also spelled as DuPont, duPont, Du Pont, or du Pont is a French surname meaning "of the bridge", historically indicating that the holder of the surname re ...
*
Ford
* HP
*
Cooley LLP
Cooley LLP is an American international law firm, headquartered in Palo Alto, California, with offices worldwide. The firm's practice areas include corporate, litigation, intellectual property, fund formation, public markets, employment, life ...
*
Wilson Sonsini Goodrich & Rosati
* Stanford Genome Technology Center
* Jazz Pharmaceuticals
* Lockheed Martin
* PARC (a Xerox Company)
* MZ
*
Electric Power Research Institute
EPRI, is an American independent, nonprofit organization that conducts research and development related to the generation, delivery, and use of electricity to help address challenges in the energy industry, including reliability, efficiency, affo ...
*
Foley & Lardner
Foley & Lardner LLP (often referred to simply as "Foley") is an international law firm founded in 1842. In terms of revenue, it ranked 45th on The American Lawyer's 2025 AmLaw 100 rankings of U.S. law firms, with $1.28 billion gross revenue in 2 ...
*
Rubrik
* SAP
* StartX
* TIBCO
* Varian
*
Rivian
Rivian Automotive, Inc., is an American electric vehicle manufacturer and automotive technology company founded in 2009. Rivian produces an electric sport utility vehicle (SUV), a pickup truck on a Skateboard (automotive platform), "skateboard" ...
See also
*
Business cluster
A business cluster is a geographic concentration of interconnected businesses, suppliers, and associated institutions in a particular field. Clusters are considered to increase the productivity with which companies can compete, nationally and gl ...
*
Mega-Site
A Megasite or Mega-site is a land development by private developers, universities, or governments to promote business clusters. These organizations develop the land so that it is "shovel ready" for big business, by improving the infrastructure (r ...
References
{{Palo Alto, California
1951 establishments in California
Economy of the San Francisco Bay Area
Buildings and structures in Palo Alto, California
Research Park
The following is a list of science park, technology parks and biomedical parks of the world, organized by continent.
Asia
China
Mainland China
* Shanghai Pudong Software Park (Shanghai)
* Zhangjiang Hi-Tech Park (''aka'' Zhangjiang Drug ...
Science parks in the United States