Charged Bodies

Chapter 8Venture Capitalism

There has been a lot of discussion lately about the economy’s metamorphosis from a sunset to a sunrise industrial base. Silicon Valley is often cited as a fulcrum point in that shift, and nothing in Silicon Valley better represents the phenomenon—literally—than does the view in the late afternoon from Interstate 680 in Fremont, the East Bay community across the water from Santa Clara.

Looking to the west from the freeway, the passing motorist sees nearby the mammoth, dark, brooding silhouette of what was once a major General Motors West Coast assembly facility that employed over 6,500 people. Back-lit by the setting sun, the now-unused plant seems like a dinosaur mired in a tarpit. And all around in the twilight ...