CALIFORNIA: California is a *leader in 5 of the 11 sectors used to define the innovation economy and has the highest number of innovation economy employees, despite having a slightly below average overall concentration of employees. California contains both San Francisco and Silicon Valley, home to well-known companies such as Google, Apple and Facebook. California consistently invests more in research and development from non-profits and academia than any other LTS. A key to this lead in research spending is that California is home to several top research universities such as Cal Tech, Stanford, UC Berkley and UCLA. California’s strength in R&D has proven beneficial for patents, leading the LTS in patents per million residents. California is a highly desired location for business openings, with 26,205 business openings in key sectors since 2010. California’s start-ups and venture capital have a mutually dependent relationship, with venture capital investment in California ranking higher than any other LTS.
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