There are exactly two ways to get rich

[El_Johns]

139. More high-tech companies started with funding from other corporations:

First, the US government was the backer for most early high-tech research; I don't think there's any argument about that.

Shockley Semiconductor Laboratory: Backed by another corporation...

Shockley Semiconductor Laboratory, a division of Beckman Instruments, Inc., was the first establishment working on silicon semiconductor devices in what came to be known as Silicon Valley...

Shockley's... father, William Hillman Shockley, was a mining engineer who speculated in mines for a living, and spoke eight languages. His mother, Mary (née Bradford), grew up in the American West, graduated from Stanford University, and became the first female US Deputy mining surveyor.[4]

Beckman agreed to back Shockley's efforts in this area, under the umbrella of his company, Beckman Instruments...In 1955, Beckman established the seminal Shockley Semiconductor Laboratory as a division of Beckman Instruments to begin commercializing the semiconductor transistor technology invented by Caltech alumnus William Shockley. Because Shockley's aging mother lived in Palo Alto, California, the Shockley Laboratory was established in nearby Mountain View, California, and thus, "Silicon Valley" was born..

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shockley_Semiconductor_Laboratory


Fairchild Semiconductor: backed by another corporation:

Eventually a group of the youngest employees went over Shockley's head ... Fed up, the group broke ranks and sought support from Sherman Fairchild's Fairchild Camera and Instrument, an Eastern U.S. company with considerable military contracts. In 1957, Fairchild Semiconductor was started with plans for making silicon transistors.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shockley_Semiconductor_Laboratory


And the "Fairchild" was this guy:

Born in Oneonta, New York, Sherman Fairchild was the only child of George Winthrop Fairchild (1854–1924) and Josephine Mills Sherman (1859–1924).[3] His father was a Republican Congressman as well as a co-founder and the first Chairman of IBM. His mother was the daughter of William Sherman, of Davenport, Iowa.

His father died on December 31, 1924, and as an only child he inherited his father's multi-million-dollar estate. He also inherited his father's IBM stock, becoming IBM's largest individual stockholder until his death in 1971.[2]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sherman_Fairchild

...small world