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Weren't the bulk of the original SV tech companies largely funded by the military? and haven't many (most?) or the not directly consumer oriented ones always ha

by olliej 3y ago

Weren't the bulk of the original SV tech companies largely funded by the military? and haven't many (most?) or the not directly consumer oriented ones always had massive military contracts? This isn't new.

wolverine876 3y ago
> Weren't the bulk of the original SV tech companies largely funded by the military? It depends who you mean by 'original'. One narrative about the 1980s-90s boom was it was laid off people from the defense industry. Maybe all the laid off SV people will now reverse that flow. > haven't many (most?) or the not directly consumer oriented ones always had massive military contracts? Who? Not Google, etc. > This isn't new. Why do people love to say that?
- nradov 3y ago
  There were tech companies in Silicon Valley long before the 1980s-90s boom. The original companies largely grew out of WW2 military contracts for radar and electronics. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZTC_RxWN_xo https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZTC_RxWN_xo
- olliej 3y ago
  > Who? Not Google, etc. First, I said "not directly consumer oriented ones", which are the minority of SV companies. That said: Digital, HP, Intel, Honeywell, AMD, etc (e.g I'd argue Xerox PARC was largely funded via Xerox's government contracts). You also have a lot of the funding Stanford received coming from defense programs. While Google may not have started that way - hell, it started as a search engine and now it's an spyware and advertising company - it has started taking DARPA research contracts. But plenty of this era's SV companies are military contractors first (Palantir might be the biggest of this generation, but plenty of drone, ai, etc startups are targeting governments). > > This isn't new. > Why do people love to say that? Because it's not? One of the reasons people will say true statements, is because they prefer honesty to idealized mythology.
  - nytesky 3y ago
    I could have sworn I read somewhere (maybe NDGT science and war history) that Stanford was founded from war profits. But I can’t find any history of that so maybe I misunderstood?

by olliej 3y ago

wolverine876 3y ago

> Weren't the bulk of the original SV tech companies largely funded by the military? It depends who you mean by 'original'. One narrative about the 1980s-90s boom was it was laid off people from the defense industry. Maybe all the laid off SV people will now reverse that flow. > haven't many (most?) or the not directly consumer oriented ones always had massive military contracts? Who? Not Google, etc. > This isn't new. Why do people love to say that?

nradov 3y ago
There were tech companies in Silicon Valley long before the 1980s-90s boom. The original companies largely grew out of WW2 military contracts for radar and electronics. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZTC_RxWN_xo https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZTC_RxWN_xo
olliej 3y ago
> Who? Not Google, etc. First, I said "not directly consumer oriented ones", which are the minority of SV companies. That said: Digital, HP, Intel, Honeywell, AMD, etc (e.g I'd argue Xerox PARC was largely funded via Xerox's government contracts). You also have a lot of the funding Stanford received coming from defense programs. While Google may not have started that way - hell, it started as a search engine and now it's an spyware and advertising company - it has started taking DARPA research contracts. But plenty of this era's SV companies are military contractors first (Palantir might be the biggest of this generation, but plenty of drone, ai, etc startups are targeting governments). > > This isn't new. > Why do people love to say that? Because it's not? One of the reasons people will say true statements, is because they prefer honesty to idealized mythology.
- nytesky 3y ago
  I could have sworn I read somewhere (maybe NDGT science and war history) that Stanford was founded from war profits. But I can’t find any history of that so maybe I misunderstood?