Difference Between Silicon Valley and Wall Street

Silicon Valley is a global innovation hub and a startup mecca. It is where aspiring entrepreneurs flock to raise money and develop their tech startups into a scalable business model. This is probably why Silicon Valley is known as the startup capital of the world. Then there’s Wall Street, the financial hub of American financial system, the history of which began with slavery. Today, Wall Street is home to some of the biggest financial services firms and investment banks in the world.

Where is Silicon Valley?

Located south of San Francisco in Northern California, Silicon Valley is the tech capital of America and the global hub of high-tech innovation and scientific development. Silicon Valley is the center for innovation, especially for the information and communication technologies. The name ‘silicon’ originally referred to the material used for making semiconductor computer chips. The area is now home to over 2,000 tech companies, along with some of the world’s largest high-tech corporations, including Apple, Google, HP, Cisco, Oracle, and Intel.

Silicon Valley has many stories to tell – transformation from a semi-agricultural base to a world-class technology center, the success stories of brilliant entrepreneurs turned billionaires, the rise (and sometimes fall) of tech companies and startups. It’s a region that received only sporadic scholarly attention and commercialized many electronics and biomedical technologies developed in the second half of the twentieth century. Much of the biotechnology revolution also took place in and around Silicon Valley, which earned global recognition as the hub of high-technology and venture capitals.

Where is Wall Street?

The eight-block-long street in the lower Manhattan section of New York City is the hub of the nation’s largest financial companies. Wall Street is home to the New York Stock Exchange and NASDAQ, the world’s two largest stock exchanges by market capitalization. Wall Street is one of the city’s best known and oldest neighborhoods, and one of the most famous streets in the world. It is best-known for the banks, brokerage houses, and NYSE buildings.

The original name of Wall Street was Dee Wall Straat in reference to the Walloons, Belgian farmers who were among the first settlers in the New Netherland around Fort Amsterdam in 1630. In the late-eighteenth century traders and speculators gathered under the buttonwood tree at the foot of Wall Street to establish a formal exchange for the buying and selling of shares and loans. In May 1792, the dealers and auctioneers finally formalized the ‘Buttonwood Agreement’, which laid the groundwork for the New York Stock Exchange. The rest, as they say, is history.

Difference between Silicon Valley and Wall Street

All About Silicon Valley and Wall Street

– Silicon Valley is the gold standard for tech and the global center for high-tech innovation and venture capitals, which is home to over 2,000 tech companies including some of the world’s largest high-tech companies and headquarters of some of the Fortune 100 companies, and thousands of startups. Silicon Valley is a region to the south of San Francisco in Northern California.

The eight-bock-long Wall Street in the financial district of New York City is the hub of America’s largest financial companies and is home to the world’s two largest stock exchanges, NYSE and NASDAQ. Wall Street is one of the city’s most popular and oldest neighborhoods, which extends south from Canal Street to the tip of Manhattan at Battery Park and includes Governor’s Island.

Origin of Silicon Valley and Wall Street

– Silicon Valley is a story of an underdeveloped region which became the main hub of technology and innovation in the world. Silicon Valley got its name from the material used for making integrated circuit chips. Silicon Valley owed its existence to many factors, from the partnership between William Hewlett and David Packard to the foundation of Shockley Semiconductor in 1956. However, the naming of Silicon Valley was credited to Don Hoefler, a reporter for Electronic News who used the phrase ‘Silicon Valley’ for the first time in print in 1971.

Wall Street history has undergone several phases but the name originally came from Walloons, who were the first settlers of the New Netherland around Fort Amsterdam in 1630. The entrance to the settlement became officially known as the ‘Dee Wall Straat’. The official start of Wall Street as a commercial hotspot began in May 1792 with the signing of the ‘Buttonwood Agreement’, which laid the groundwork for the NYSE.

Top Companies/Firms

– The Big Six of Silicon Valley firms includes the three largest tech companies in the world – Apple, Google, and Facebook – and two financial services company – Wells Fargo and Visa – and the American multinational energy corporation, Chevron. It is also home to other big technology companies, including Cisco, HP, Oracle, Intel, Netflix, Adobe Systems, Yahoo, LinkedIn and more.

Wall Street is home to the world’s seven largest financial services firms and investment banks including JPMorgan Chase & Co., Goldman Sachs, Morgan Stanlej, Bear Stearns, Citigroup, Lehman Brothers, and Merrill Lynch. It is also home to the world’s two largest stock exchanges, NYSE and NASDAQ.

Silicon Valley vs. Wall Street: Comparison Chart

Summary of Silicon Valley and Wall Street

Silicon Valley is the hub of high-technology, innovation and venture capitals. Silicon Valley is a story of an underdeveloped region which became the main hub of technology and innovation in the world. The rise of Silicon Valley has garnered worldwide attention and it has become the center for innovations in software and Internet services because of its efficient laws, policies and regulations to encourage business practices. Wall Street is the symbol and geographic center of American Capitalism. Wall Street is the backbone of the American financial system and a worldwide symbol of finance and investment.

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