Hewlett-Packard paved the way in Silicon Valley
Hewlett-Packard paved the way in Silicon Valley
Chris Anderson, Sarasota Herald-TribuneWed, April 15, 2026 at 7:37 PM UTC
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This story is part of the Iconic Brands series, a USA TODAY network project showcasing the companies and brands that helped shape the nation's identity, economy and culture. The series celebrates American ingenuity with a deeply reported examination of how brands intersect with history, community and everyday life in celebration of the nation's 250th anniversary. Find more at https://usatoday.com/usa250/iconic-brands
Artificial Intelligence is transforming our very existence faster than any technology before it, experts say, and Hewlett-Packard is determined to lead the way in AI-driven infrastructure.
And to think: The company's road to unlocking AI's once-unimaginable potential began on a workbench in someone's small garage in 1938, when the internet was decades away from even a conceptual notion and the world's news and entertainment were relayed through living room radios on Saturday nights.
Over the past 86 years, Hewlett-Packard – a multinational information technology company credited with creating the world's first personal computer – has been a pioneering force in Silicon Valley, and its impact on American culture through the evolution of technology has been as significant as company, even after some acquisition miscalculations threatened to derail decades of advancements and led to the company fracturing into two entities.
Once ranked ninth on the Fortune 500 list, Hewlett-Packard was forced to split into two independent and publicly traded companies in 2015.
HP Inc. – a mirror of the original company – focuses on personal computers and printers, and in 2024 it was the world's second-largest computer vendor by unit sales (behind only Lenovo).
The publicly traded company is based in Palo Alto, California, and its current CEO is Bruce Broussard, who is serving in an interim role. Broussard replaced Enrique Lores, who left to become CEO of PayPal.
Meanwhile, Hewlett Packard Enterprise, or HPE, focuses on AI, hybrid cloud and networking.
From powering autonomous vehicles to advances in modern medicine, HPE's website says the company's "essential technology is behind the scenes of some of the most ambitious innovations on the planet."
The company has six of the world's supercomputers – including the top-ranked El Capitan – to lead the way in AI-driven advances.
"We help you unlock your greatest ambitions, whatever they may be," Hewlett Packard Enterprise CEO Antonio Neri said during a company conference in Barcelona in 2025.
Both companies continue to be innovators impacting the world's connectivity as it changes at a dizzying pace daily. Which, of course, leads to the question:
What if Hewlett had never met Packard?
HP Inc.How did Hewlett-Packard begin?
Bill Hewlett and Dave Packard were Stanford graduates who met on Aug. 23, 1937, with a vision of starting a new venture together.
The two men wanted to design and manufacture products in the electrical engineering field.
A year later their world-changing venture began.
At the time there were no computers, and the only printers were the industrial-sized printing presses that produced daily newspapers.
They would change that.
In 1938, with only $539 in startup, Hewlett and Packard began working out of a small, detached garage on 367 Addison Ave. in Palo Alto, California.
The garage was basically just a concrete floor and a workbench. It was big enough, however, to develop some interesting prototypes that included a device that helped astronomers at a nearby observatory set a telescope accurately, a harmonica tuner, a foul-line indicator for bowling alleys and an electric eye for automatic toilet flushing.
They also developed what they called HP Model 200A, which was an oscillator to test sound equipment. The Disney Co. was intrigued enough to purchase eight to prepare movie theaters to screen "Fantasia."
The partnership was officially formed on Jan. 1, 1939, and the two men also agreed they would name the company after their surnames.
But in what order?
The order of one of the world's most recognizable brand names was determined by a simple coin flip.
Aerial shot of Palo Alto, California on a clear and sunny day in summer. Palo Alto is one of many towns in Silicon Valley in the greater San Francisco Bay area. It is the city where Hewlett-Packard began. halbergman, Getty Images/iStockphotoThe birthplace of Silicon Valley
In "HP Origins," a documentary available on YouTube, Guy Kawaski, founder of Garage Technology Ventures, credited Hewlett and Packard as the founders of Silicon Valley.
"HP really was the inspiration, I think, for the Valley," Kawaski said. "No question."
The garage where the company began was registered as California Historical Landmark No. 976 and officially declared the "Birthplace of Silicon Valley" in 1987.
The property was listed on the National Register of Historic Places 20 years later.
In addition to rolling out prototypes, the early days of Hewlett-Packard had a big impact on the way companies operated internally. The employee was as important as the products being produced.
In 1942, for example, Hewlett-Packard offered its employees a groundbreaking health care plan and was the first known company to utilize an open office floor plan, unheard of at the time.
In the "HP Origins" documentary, Jim Collins – co-author of the book "Built to Last: Successful Habits of Visionary Companies" – said that HP's philosophy was, at its core, true to its earliest intention, and that was to create, grow and make a societal impact.
Hewlett and Packard developed counter-radar technology and artillery shell proximity fuses during World War II, and by 1951 the company's sales had reached $5.5 million.
HP ballooned to 215 employees and the company went public on Nov. 6, 1957.
When printouts are needed, a great option for SMBs is the HP OfficeJet Pro 9125e All-in-One printer.The world's first personal computer
According to Wired magazine, Hewlett-Packard was the producer of the first device in the world to be called a personal computer.
In 1968, the Hewlett-Packard 9100A was introduced.
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Yet the company – as hard as it is to imagine – was reluctant to label the Hewlett-Packard 9100A as a computer. Instead, HP called it a "desktop calculator."
Hewlett was once quoted as saying, "If we called it a computer, it would have been rejected by our customers' computer gurus because it didn't look like an IBM. We therefore decided to call it a calculator, and all such nonsense disappeared.''
The price of HP's "desktop calculator" was around $5,000. The keyboard was basically similar to what you would find on an adding machine. The device did not possess an alphabetic keyboard.
Apple co-founder Steve Wozniak was a former employee of HP and he designed the Apple I computer while working at HP. Wozniak offered the computer to HP under a "right of first refusal" deal. Wozniak has stated in interviews that HP turned him down five times because the company wanted to focus on its visibility within the scientific and business markets.
By the mid-1980’s, sales for the company boomed as they reached $6.5 billion.
A partnership of two men that began in 1938 was now a global enterprise with 85,000 employees.
This was also a pivotal time as HP trotted out both the inkjet and laser printer for desktop use. These types of printers were later developed into products such as the single-unit printer/scanner/copier/fax machines that were prevalent throughout the country.
HP also developed the software to convert data into dots for printing.
HP caused waves in 1997 when the company began selling products to Iran through a distributor based in Dubai – this despite an executive order by President Bill Clinton prohibiting such business practices. The company was the subject of an investigation conducted by the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission.
The evolution of Hewlett-Packard
Another notable stretch that had a significant impact on the company arrived in 2001 when Hewlett-Packard announced it had merged with Compaq. Reportedly, there were numerous shareholders who initially objected to the merger, including Bill Hewlett's son, Walter.
The new company, however, became a major producer of laptops, including models under the Pavilion brand, and business stabilized, but by 2005 change was afoot.
Ultimately, the merger with Compaq did not live up to expectations, and after years of unsatisfactory earnings reports the HP board of directors demanded chair and CEO Carly Fiorina step down, a move that jumpstarted shares in HP stock.
Fiorina, the first woman CEO of a Fortune Top 20 company, was later a candidate in the 2016 Republican Party presidential primary. She was also a vice-presidential candidate with Ted Cruz before the Texas senator dropped out of the race.
By 2010, the company was forced to navigate more rough water, which ultimately led to the 2015 split. Among the reasons the company fell out of favor with shareholders and buyers was a failure to fully embrace mobile services.
Large profit losses led to enormous layoffs and messy shakeups at the top.
Smartphones and tablets were taking over the market while consumers were no longer enamored with the novelty of the personal computer, the device HP developed and specialized in producing.
Artificial intelligence has arrived
By 2015, there was really no choice, and the company split.
HP Inc., and HPE were left standing, with the former continuing to focus on personal computers and printers, while the latter shifted to AI, hybrid cloud and networking.
The two have now been standalone companies for over a decade.
"Be ambitious with everything you do," Antonio Neri – the CEO of HPE – told employees at a company event in Las Vegas last year. "And that takes courage."
At a similar company event in Barcelona, Neri explained his company's urgent focus on artificial intelligence. AI is here, Neri said, and there is no going back.
He added that AI should be explored, embraced and developed.
"AI is transforming our future faster than any technology before it," Neri said. "It has become fully embedded in our lives, in our society and in our businesses."
Neri went on to explain the almost mindboggling potential that agentic AI possesses and why his company is so proactive in harnessing its usages.
Agentic AI, as defined by professors at MIT, are systems that examine a complex goal and instead of simply generating content, they act independently to reach the goal by navigating, interacting with and making decisions within complex environments.
Agentic AI is different from generative AI, which creates content.
Agentic AI acts on behalf of the user and does things from booking flights to researching term papers.
"It processes data on a scale a human cannot even think about it," Neri said, "and that is a huge benefit because they are proactive in what they do and they offer solutions to problems and eventually you can ask them to execute them."
Neri added that agentic AI "is the next generation of AI technology. With agentic AI, AI is no longer just a tool, and these advancements of the new AI will drive business transformation, but getting there will not be easy."
Neri said that a recent survey by the MIT Media Lab discovered that 95% of enterprise AI pilots failed to deliver expected financial returns.
"And there are many reasons for it,'' Neri said.
"Much of today's infrastructure is made up of layers and layers of legacy IT that have been built over decades, making it harder to manage and modernize," Neri said.
"At the same time, growing data sovereignty and security requirements are forcing you to rethink how your data is accessed, processed and stored."
How the list was chosen
The Iconic Brands 50 identifies American companies that most profoundly shaped the nation’s identity, economy and culture. Selection emphasized historical significance, industry-building innovation, measurable economic influence and lasting cultural impact. Brands were chosen for transforming daily life or becoming enduring symbols of American values. Long-term relevance and sustained national influence carried greater weight than short-term financial performance or recent popularity.
This article originally appeared on Sarasota Herald-Tribune: Hewlett-Packard shaped Silicon Valley with bold innovations
Source: “AOL Breaking”
