If California were a sovereign nation, it would rank as the world’s fifth-largest economy by nominal GDP, ahead of countries like the UK and France. The state, home to Silicon Valley, the semiconductor industry, and Hollywood, is also at the forefront of the artificial intelligence revolution.
California’s economy is the largest in the United States. Its gross domestic product in 2023 was 3.9 trillion US dollars, 6.1 per cent more than the previous year. This means that if it were an independent country, California would be the fifth largest economy in the world, ahead of countries like England or France.
California boasts the largest economy in the United States, with a gross domestic product of 3.9 trillion US dollars in 2023, a 6.1% increase from the previous year. This diverse economy hosts major technology companies such as Apple, Alphabet (Google’s parent company), Meta (Facebook’s parent company), Cisco, Tesla, and Waymo. Since November 2022, California has emerged as a hub for artificial intelligence, hosting significant companies like OpenAI, Anthropic, Inflection, and Perplexity, along with hardware giants like NVIDIA, Intel, and AMD, which support the Silicon Valley ecosystem.
By Teresa Fernandes, AICEP Commissioner in San Francisco, USA
