The city that traded its orchards for the world's data

Entertainment · Published 19 October 2026 · Updated 20 October 2026 Swipe more like this →

In short: Before it was the heart of Silicon Valley, Santa Clara was a landscape of thriving orchards and vegetables. Today, it is a global hub for semiconductors and data centers, where the city's energy is consumed by the very servers that power our modern lives.

Santa Clara’s transformation is a study in rapid industrial evolution. For over a century following its 1852 incorporation, the city's economy was rooted in agriculture, with fertile soil supporting a steady population of about 5,000 people. This pastoral identity remained largely intact until the mid-20th century. The 1960s marked a pivotal shift as the semiconductor industry began to sprout, fundamentally altering the landscape of the Valley of Heart's Delight and leaving little of its agricultural past visible today.

The city's role as a technological powerhouse is now cemented by its status as California's leader in data center operations. It hosts over 50 server farms, which are so energy-intensive that they consume 60% of the energy from municipal utilities. To meet this demand, the city operates the Silicon Valley Power electric utility, which brought the 147-megawatt Donald Von Raesfeld Power Plant online in 2005. This infrastructure allows the city to offer electricity at rates considerably lower than the dominant Northern California utility, Pacific Gas and Electric.

This growth came at a physical cost. During the 1950s and 1970s, urban renewal policies—specifically the 1957 'Franklin Facelift'—led to the demolition of historic buildings like the Santa Clara Theater to make way for redevelopment. While the city cleared the land for a new downtown, high costs prevented many businesses from returning, creating a decades-long vacuum in the urban core. Today, the city balances this high-tech identity with cultural landmarks, ranging from the oldest university in California to the Mission Santa Clara de Asís, founded in 1777.

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