Businesses in San Francisco

San Francisco is at the top of everyone's list of places they want to visit, so it is unsurprising that tourism is the largest sector of the City's economy. In addition to domestic and international tourists, San Francisco is also on of the top North American destinations for conventions and business meetings.

Since the days of the Gold Rush, banking and finance have been important staples of the local economy, and in the last half of the 20th century, San Francisco emerged as one of the top centers of global finance. Wells Fargo and Bank of America were founded here, along with the Federal Reserve Bank of San Francisco.

In the last generation, San Francisco - along with Silicon Valley and the entire Bay Area - have led the nation and the world in the research, development and production of everything in the “high tech” sphere: from dot-com to internet to biotechnology. Apple Computer, Facebook, Twitter, Google and countless other companies have sprouted up, some becoming the largest business enterprises in the world. San Francisco has developed the Mission Bay neighborhood, adjacent to downtown, as a hub of biomedical research and applications. The City's universities and teaching hospitals, including UCSF and San Francisco General, are partnering with government and private companies to develop next-generation healthcare solutions, including stem-cell research.

San Francisco is home to a wide variety of major corporations, both privately held and publicly traded, including, Bechtel (construction), Del Monte (foods), Wells Fargo Bank, Visa (consumer finance), Blue Shield of California (insurance), Charles Schwab (investments), McKesson Corporation (pharmaceuticals), The Sierra Club, Current TV, Kimpton Hotels, Industrial Light & Magic (LucasFilm), Dolby Labs, The Gap and Levi Strauss (apparel), Williams-Sonoma (housewares & decor).

Explore San Francisco in a hire car.