SBF's both parents teach at Stanford. You can imagine the 'values' they teach.
burnt-resistorJul 23, 2026, 6:11 AM
As a former FTE in the business & auxiliaries and the academic sides, can confirm Stanford is unlike most universities because of the slavish fixation on research secondary to building a startup for a big exit. This is in addition to the usual monetization of research by most institutions' licensing departments selling hard work to companies cheap without researchers or employees benefiting.
Surely it's Silicon Valley's favourite university primarily because it's an elite university that has top tier business and computer science programs and is in Palo Alto (ie right in the heart of the valley)? The only other universities I can find that are in the valley are Santa Clara and San Jose State. CMU has a satellite campus in mountain view but that's not the same as having the whole university within spitting distance of Sand Hill Road.
catlover76Jul 23, 2026, 12:25 AM
Could it be Silicon Valley's favorite without those attributes?
well_ackshuallyJul 23, 2026, 10:53 AM
I haven't seen Stanford abuse grey areas of the law yet, SV still has some value to add on to the behaviors that Stanford teaches!
ahartmetzJul 23, 2026, 6:46 AM
With the current elites of SV, it doesn't seem to be very accidental to me neither.