Mountain View is a city located in Santa Clara County, California, United States, in Silicon Valley. Named for its views of the Santa Cruz Mountains, Mountain View has developed from its origins as a stagecoach stop into one of the principal cities of Silicon Valley. It has a population of 74,066.
Situated in the southern end of the peninsula in the San Francisco Bay Area, in the northwest corner of Santa Clara County, Mountain View is the location of many high technology companies. In 1956, Shockley Semiconductor Laboratory, the first company to develop silicon semiconductor devices in what came to be known as Silicon Valley, was established in the city by William Shockley. Today, many of the largest technology companies in the world are headquartered in the city, including Google, Mozilla Foundation, Symantec, and Intuit.
