The new 104,000-square-foot office, which represents a $40 million commitment over a 10-year lease, is currently home to 200 team members and can house up to 300 associates. It features research labs, workshops and garage space for advanced research. The office space mirrors the company’s philosophy of Inspiring Working Conditions, focused on collaborative technology and workspaces that foster innovation, collaboration and creativity.
“The new Bosch Research and Technology Center in Sunnyvale represents the maturity of our presence in Silicon Valley after nearly 20 years in the market,” said Mike Mansuetti, president of Bosch in North America. “We have envisioned technology like automated driving and artificial intelligence as part of our history in the Valley. Our new office enables us to continue the important collaboration with the Silicon Valley business and academic communities to imagine and bring to market the technology innovations of the future.”
From trend scouting to collaboration with top universities, customers and industry partners, the Bosch team in Silicon Valley has contributed to the development of technology in key growth areas for the company, including artificial intelligence, human-machine interaction, automated driving systems, robotics, advanced circuits and sensors.
Since 1999, Bosch’s presence in Silicon Valley has grown to include nine Bosch business divisions spanning the Bosch Group portfolio. These divisions work closely with corporate research colleagues to transition research topics into to deployable technology. They also conduct trend-scouting activities to identify new technologies and partners. Divisions present in Silicon Valley benefit from close proximity to customers and partners in categories such as mobility, consumer electronics and more.
Also part of the Bosch footprint in Sunnyvale is Robert Bosch Venture Capital (RBVC) GmbH, the Bosch Group’s venture capital organization. RBVC invests in innovative startup companies around the globe at all stages of development. In so doing, it builds valuable relationships in the world of startups and helps Bosch remain an innovative leader. At the same time, RBVC investments give Bosch access to disruptive technologies at an early stage.
Cultural and scientific diversity fuel Bosch in Silicon Valley
As part Bosch’s global Corporate Research network, the Research and Technology Center in Silicon Valley benefits from a diversity of cultural and scientific approaches as the team is composed of researchers from around the world.
The Bosch Community Fund, the company’s U.S.-based foundation, has actively supported STEM (science, technology, engineering and math) education across the United States since 2012. Today the Bosch Community Fund awarded $75,000 in grants to the Sunnyvale Education Foundation in support of STEM education programs for elementary and middle schools within the Sunnyvale School District. Schools will utilize the funds for lab and makerspace equipment, curricular materials, teacher training and other STEM programmatic support.
Academic collaboration drives technology advancement
At the heart of the Bosch presence in Silicon Valley is a long-standing relationship with the local academic community, particularly Stanford University.
The Bosch RTC has worked with Stanford graduate students on a number of different technologies, including high-efficiency internal combustion engine concepts, MEMS (microelectromechanical systems) sensors, autonomous driving and natural language understanding.
In 2008, Bosch endowed a chair at Stanford, known as the Robert Bosch Chairmanship of the Department of Mechanical Engineering, and that same year was a founding member of the Stanford University CarLab, an initiative focused on interdisciplinary research into automotive vehicle safety, the environment and enjoyable transportation.
