Santa Clara, California

Santa Clara is a city in Santa Clara County, California, in the southern San Francisco Bay Area. Its name is Spanish for Saint Clare, and the Spanish founded it in 1777 when they established Mission Santa Clara de Asis under the leadership of Junipero Serra. The 2020 census counted 127,647 residents, which made it the eighth most populous city in the Bay Area. Today the city sits at the center of Silicon Valley and hosts the headquarters of technology companies such as Intel, Advanced Micro Devices and Nvidia. It is also home to Santa Clara University, described as the oldest university in California, to Levi's Stadium, where the San Francisco 49ers play, and to the California's Great America amusement park. San Jose borders the city on almost every side, with Sunnyvale and Cupertino meeting it on the west.