Intel Museum

Kids really enjoy the Intel Museum, and the staff are wonderfully kind and incredibly knowledgeable, which made our first visit even better. Just a small suggestion — I hope they’ll consider adding more activities for kids in the future to make the experience even more engaging for families.

🌟 Intel Museum A Microchip Marvel in Silicon Valley! 🖥️🔬 If you're even remotely curious about how the digital world runs, this museum is a must-see! Nestled inside Intel's HQ in Santa Clara, it’s a compact yet captivating dive into the history of computing and innovation. 🧠 Tech Tales & Silicon Legends From the birth of the microprocessor to the evolution of modern computing, the exhibits are clear, interactive, and surprisingly fun. You’ll walk away with a deeper appreciation for the chips that power our lives. 🎮 Hands-On & Family-Friendly Whether you're a techie or just tech-curious, there’s something to touch, play, and explore. Kids and adults alike will love designing chips and exploring virtual labs. 🏛️ Small Space, Big Impact It’s not huge, but it’s packed with punch. Perfect for a 1-hour visit that leaves you inspired and informed. 💡 Free Entry & Easy Access Open weekdays 9–5, and totally free! Great for a quick stop or a thoughtful detour while in Silicon Valley. 📸 Photo Ops & Geeky Gifts Snap a selfie with a giant silicon wafer or grab a chip-themed souvenir. It’s geek chic at its finest! 💬 Final Thought: The Intel Museum proves that big ideas can live in small spaces. A hidden gem for innovators, dreamers, and anyone who’s ever wondered what’s inside their computer. 🧬💙🔧🖥️

A must visit: the history is showcased very well. Amazing storytelling experience. A lot of fun activity to do. We also got a return gift on the way back, which was a mouse pad with a charging station. Amazing stuff. Really good to see the history of what's inside our computers

Such a fun and educational visit! I really enjoyed learning how computer chips are made. The staff were friendly and explained everything clearly and perfect for both kids and adults.

I brought my wife and kids and they had more fun than we expected. This free museum shares the history of Intel, its founders, and the process of manufacturing the microchip and how it has evolved over the years. Lots of interactive things for kids to enjoy while parents read and interact as well. The employees are very friendly. There's a gift shop inside.

Very well thought out museum highlighting the history of Intel and the leaps and bounds they have come from. The organization and layout is very intuitive to follow, the path is all chronologically ordered and details for each and every item on exhibit. The staff are very kind, patient, and pumped up to get visitors started experiencing the location. The whole exhibit can be experienced in an hour. The entrance is to the side of the main lobby. There is a gift shop as well with unique small crafts and outfits and accessories. There is a visitors area parking area and the crowd fluctuates depending on time of day and any large tours that are making a stop. This is a free museum and you can do a self guided tour or a guided tour by the staff. There are some neat interactive screens to play with too. Overall, a nice place to spend some time if you're in the general San Jose Silicon Valley area.

It's worth visiting if you are in the area. Quite small, but has some interesting items. It free.

Nicely done free museum. The intel advertising and logo change over the years is particularly interesting. There is a fun AR video experience you can get texted to yourself. The bus goes straight there so it’s easy to get to. Highly recommend for any age if you’re in the area.

For a free museum all about microprocessors and the creation and history of Intel, including its successes and failures, it's actually pretty nifty. Of course this would not be my rating if it there was paid admissions, but it's a fantastic public educational service they're doing. Parking is also free, and it seems you pretty much just park with all the other Intel employees in the lot, though there are visitor-designated areas. This museum is very digestible in 20-60 minutes depending on how thorough you are. The pathway is basically straight ahead from the entrance and past the help desk, and in chronological order as you go along the perimeter. There's a lot of interesting things to learn, including how to write your name in binary, and seeing the history of Intel dipping their hands in the watch business! I also am fascinated by how tiny everything is on the circuit technology. Staff were consistently cleaning the displays, and came around to ask if we wanted to know more about something, or helped with using the interactive exhibits. There is an option to ask staff for a guided tour. There are neat photo ops outside of the museum as well as inside. They even do this funny AR thing that you can send to yourself in addition to bunny suits that you can try on or use for a photo stand-in. They sometimes have a seasonal thing going on; for example, when I went, they were displaying the Gun Fight arcade machine, which was the first video game to use a microprocessor. They had coins they inserted for us to play, and since it wasn't a busy day, we had the option to play multiple rounds. The gift shop to the right of the entrance was stocked with cool Intel swag, and a majority of things were reasonably priced. Whether you're local or from out of town, the Intel Museum is a chill place to be. Even literally - come duck in here if you want some good AC. Intel is amongst the biggest OG entities to hail from the Silicon Valley, so if you want to feel immersed in Silicon Valley and learn some stuff in a peaceful environment, and for free to boot, here you go.

It was our school field trip and this place is absolutely amazing!!! So much history with enthusiastic staff to explain curious minds. Glad our school chose this and as chaperones we had a blast too !!! Way to go ! Will definitely keep goin back !!!

How exciting is the life of a microprocessor? Not very. But the Intel Museum does a great job of presenting one of the marvels of the 20th Century. This museum is free and takes at most an hour. It presents the history of Intel, it's founder, a history of their processor chips and has interactive screens and areas where kids and adults can get more hands on experience of what goes into making a chip physically and on the programming side. There numerous screen swipe stations that are popular the kids. While you're trying to explain how you first used a 486 chip in the 1990s in your computer, your kids have wandered off trying to spell their name at the 1's and 0's display. The back corner of the museum covers how chips are manufactured and explains and shows the clean rooms of chip manufacturing floors. There are various classic products displayed that have used Intel processors, from computers, to watches to video game machines. The staff was helpful, as they came by to check on us multiple times to see if we had any questions. If you arrange for a guided tour, that is very helpful because the guide simplifies the explanation of all the technical stuff. They host kids and school tours and they have a glass walled meeting room in the middle where they can do fun tech workshops with kids. The museum store has a variety of Intel shirts, jackets, hats, water bottles, pens, pins, bags, toys. The prices seemed very reasonable, at just a bit above cost. There were $10 t-shirts, $4 pens, $3 pins, things that would cost double at other tech onsite stores (like Apple and Google). If you want to get some tech history in for free or don't have time to cover the Computer History Museum that's 7 miles away, stop by the Intel Museum. One caveat... It's only open on weekdays. ***Hot Tip*** Go in the main entrance lobby seating area and sit on the couches. Then look up. You'll see a giant every-angle-of-the-ceiling video of their manufacturing facilities. It's quite relaxing and therapeutic.

For a free museum you can't really complain. I would not go out of my way for this but we happen to be in the area and my son wanted to stop by. It has a lot of information and history about computers. My son enjoyed the interactive exhibits. If you're walking by quickly through everything, you can finish the museum in 20-30 minutes. If you're actually reading everything and the interactive exhibits you could finish in an hour.

You gotta laugh when a multi-billion dollar company whose one and only business is COMPUTERS has a museum where not one, but TWO pairs of identical interactive displays (that's two apiece--of the exact same display!) DON'T WORK! NEITHER OF 'EM. One of the kids there (yes, they are definitely kids... in every way) informed me that they've been trying to get a newer version of one of the pairs of displays for the past 10 years. REALLY, INTEL? Why? You couldn't afford them? Meanwhile, the entire staff is way up in the front having casual conversations with one another, so if you have any questions about what you're looking at, be prepared to haul your ass on up to THEM. Oh... BTW: two of the interactive machines that don't work (the ones they've been waiting 10 years to fix or replace) tell the ENTIRE HISTORY of Intel. So if you were going to visit to learn about that, just go to the website that one of the staff provided me and save yourself the trip to Santa Clara (because if you're old like me, that's the only part of this museum you're likely to understand unless you work in I.T.): timeline.intel.com. That having been said, I did learn two things: (1) the company made $2.7 million in 1968, its first year, but made $66 million in 1973, its fifth year (just in case you thought they might not have enough cash to maintain a museum that doesn't make them look like fools); and (2) "Intel" definitely does NOT stand for "Intelligent." I'm just grateful Apple isn't using their chips in their computers anymore, because I'm a Mac guy, and I'd hate to have to depend on products that come from a company that has so little pride and that apparently pays so little attention to detail.

I really enjoyed visiting this place. Interesting to see the history of Intel. It was a quick visit, but also worth a stop to learn a little bit about the company.

I'm in Silicon Valley today. I've been meaning to do this for a very long time. I never been here, this is my first time at Intel in Santa Clara. I had to pre-call in, to see if it was operating today and there is no special event at the moment. It's very neat in here. A must see.

Very well thought out museum highlighting the history of Intel and the leaps and bounds they have come from. The organization and layout is very intuitive to follow, the path is all chronologically ordered and details for each and every item on exhibit. The staff are very kind, patient, and pumped up to get visitors started experiencing the location. The whole exhibit can be experienced in an hour. The entrance is to the side of the main lobby. There is a gift shop as well with unique small crafts and outfits and accessories. There is a visitors area parking area and the crowd fluctuates depending on time of day and any large tours that are making a stop. This is a free museum and you can do a self guided tour or a guided tour by the staff. There are some neat interactive screens to play with too. Overall, a nice place to spend some time if you're in the general San Jose Silicon Valley area.

good good good. very good for free museum. tour guide very nice and explained things very well

What a delightful little museum packed with interesting information! If you want to lean about the history of chip development this is the place to do it- many displays are interactive. There is no charge for the museum.

Intel Museum is simply amazing. I really enjoyed seeing the progress that we have made from 3.2 microns to 7 nm chips. The museum has a lot of interesting and interactive activities that include 4G vs 5G speed demo, AR funny stuff, Intel Bunny Suit cutouts for taking pictures, etc. It also has 2 Pokemon Go Gyms and 3 PokeStops. Have fun people, you'll learn a good deal about the computing units in our computers and a lot of other things as well!

Tried the Intel Museum again because my friend in town wanted to check it out! I thought maybe when I went last time it was just a bad day, nope. Do not waste your time here. It was such a mess! I at least wanted to try on a bunny suit but the station was in bedlum. I've attached other photos as well. They really need some guides or at least someone who knows how to keep the place running during the day. Besides all that, the circulation was so awful, the museum itself smelled nauseating.

They don't allow service dog inside No sign under Code, Sections 365.5, 365.6 and 365.7 I am disability very disappointed never ever come back or recommend any one come here.

Loved the impressive futuristic design of the museum and the nicely constructed displays. Though the museum is only 10,000 square feet they managed to fit a good number of displays which are nicely separated with plenty of space so that visitors don't feel too cramped while reading the information. I feel like I learned quite a bit about silicon chips and their applications from my visit and think that this is a good spot to stop by if you're visiting Silicon Valley.

Found this free attraction while exploring Santa Clara last week. So much insight and the employees were so kind to me and the other guests, willing to answer any and all questions we had. Top tier team!

I arranged a tour of the museum years ago for a group of high schoolers and it was a fantastic experience. The guide was friendly and up-beat and communicated at a level that could be well understood by the students. I recently went back with my daughter on a school field trip (4-8th graders) and was really disappointed by the guide. They were barely inaudible, didn't communicate anything clearly, and would occasionally just make up random names for the kids, and not in a funny way, but an "I don't care about any of you" kinda way. I found the whole thing rather disrespectful. If the museum can't hire guides able to handle school groups, I would suggest they stop the service, it's just a bad experience and wastes everyone's time.

Free parking and free admission. It was a fun and informative journey through semiconductor history and more ... Go show your kids how big everything used to be, haha

The Intel Museum is a very interesting place to come and learn about both the history and functionality of computers and computerized devices. Our tour guide was very knowledgeable and articulate; he shared a plethora of information with us during the tour. I particularly enjoyed the display that illustrates how computer chips have evolved throughout their history. While we didn't have any Rug Rats along with us, I noticed that there are a lot of exhibits that give kids the opportunity to try things out :-) The gift shop here is very well stocked with T-shirts and other souvenirs; all in all I'd say that a visit here will be time very well spent.

Open Monday- Saturday for sure, not sure about Sunday. It's a small Museum on the first floor of the building, there are some cool things to get geeked out at " for me it was the 270lb silicon round thingy lol" overall it's an ok place to visit if you are in the area otherwise I'd say meh just skip it.

The intel museum is a must see! Brought kids here for a class field trip and it's such a wonderful educational experience. The staff at the museum is absolutely top notch !!

If it wasn't for a colleague from Japan, I wouldn't have scheduled a tour to the Intel Museum and I am glad that I did. My first impression of Intel was very positive as I was looking for the entrance after parking my car and couple of the company's employees were kind enough to show me where it was. After decades of working in the Valley, I have never realized this fabulous museum Intel has! From the get go, we were greeted by Drew, the museum docent. He was incredibly courteous and was able to accommodate our request for an earlier slot than the one we had requested. Drew walked us through the history of Intel from the founders' background to the company's establishment and technological breakthroughs. I have also finally gotten a better understanding of how the microprocessors were made from the initial cut silicon ingot throug the wafer deposition, lithography, etching, testing, cutting and completion. He was able to explain to us from a non-engineer's perspective which is truly refreshing. I think it's definitely worthwhile for anyone, resident or visitos, to visit the Intel Museum and see how little discoveries in history can transform how technology and business evolve. Two thumbs up for Drew and for the nice employees at Intel!

Great place to spend a couple of hours. Walter was a super docent, and really showed us the unique aspects to the museum. We had a group of 10 foreign students from Japan, and they found it mostly interesting. They enjoyed the "bunny suit" most! If you are interested in silicon chips, this is the place!

The tour guide was amazing! We asked for a tour, waited for a few mins until the crowd reached a critical mass and then the 45 min non stop ride started. I was really impressed by the tour guides passion. Go behind the scenes in the high-tech world of California's famed Silicon Valley. See what it's like inside an ultra-clean, highly automated silicon chip factory, and connect with technologies that give us new ways to work, learn, play, and communicate.

Good and interesting experience in the museum place, but uncomfortable experience with the store. I don't remember I have owned the cashier millions dollars but I got this feeling. ‍

Although i am not an Intel Fanboy...i found this small museum that is focused on Intel history and Chip mfg in general is great. High tech manufacturing (especially chip manufacturing) is very complex (unlike software coding) and the museum does a great job breaking down the process and making it fun to learn or relearn the process This is a.good one hour stop when in Silicon Valley...surprised I had never stopped in during hundreds of work trips up here in the past.

It's a very small space and I'm not sure if you need to pay as I went here for an event. It's cute and lots of reading if you really want to read up on the history of chips. Probably not so fun for kids, but if you're a fan of Intel, then this is the place to be! AND you can stock up on Intel swag.

I was surprised that Intel have their own mini museum. Plenty of entertaining and facts to read. You will learn something new! I learned something new. They also have their own cinema which is kinda cool. It's huge and loud! Try it, you will like it! Make sure you have your student ID with you to get a discount. It's an additional savings.

This museum shows the history of processors and how they are built. Not surprisingly, it's a PokeStop. Admission is free. I can walk through this museum and say "I remember when we used to use these" all the time up to the point where it became too antiquated for me. This place bored the less brainy of our tourists even with some interactive exhibits. I was entertained but I did not have enough time to read everything. They have a gift shop with pricey items.

FREE museum. I give kudos to them for having one. All the major companies in Silicon Valley shoudl have a museum or visitor's center. Still, with that said, I was expecting more. This museum is not visitor friendly. Font is small and not reader friendly. Even as a engineer, I could not understand the jargon. The touch screen interfaces are slow, and you could barely hear the volume on the videos. They have a summer schedule of classes for kids. That looked cool They do have tours but you have to request for them.

I went yesterday with my students and was really disappointed with our guide. She was very rude and condescending, a behavior unacceptable for someone who is working with children. I understand it is a free service but Sarah should be a better role model for children. Sarah's behavior ruined what could have been a great trip.

Parking: It is part of the corporate building, just look for the sign for museum guest to the left of the entrance. This is a free museum and it is pretty informative. With diagrams and plenty of videos, it goes through how the fabrication process works. It doesn't go in depth but it gives you a high level understanding. There are plenty of interactive parts to the exhibit such as the huge touch screen display showing where Intel technology is being used. This museum is relatively small but is packed with lot of information. You can spend a good 2 hours just reading through all the panels. I am not sure if children would appreciate this exhibit as much as adults.

I was looking forward to visiting this museum the second I heard about it. I expected a high tech, multimillion dollar digital mecca. I was met with far less than that. The museum is about the size of a Walgreen's, if that. Part of the museum consisted of touch screen monitors. The information contained on them vary but mostly contain a time line on Intel. They also have small stations throughout the museum featuring dated computer tech behind glass to explain their significance. There is nothing here at the museum you couldn't see or learn on the net. When I found out they had a gift shop, I got a bit giddy. I was let down once again as the gift shop only really consists of mugs and sweaters and the type of things a company gives their employees for free. None of it was cheap either. Overall, if your in the area and into computers, it's worth a quick stop. The museum is free of admission so you'll only really get upset if you drove a long way to see this place.

The museum was small and intimate but it had a lot of information my tour guide was excellent

Good use of $0 and 1 hour to take my wannabe engineer 12yo to see some computer-y stuff while we were in the area. The rest of my family learned some things too. The interactive exhibits were well done. I would have benefited from a tour guide (none available on the day I went) since I didn't have even basic knowledge of what Intel does or the difference between a microchip and a processor and the exhibits don't start off with such rudimentary information. Oh, wait, it cost $20 by the time we left since 12yo bought a funny T-shirt, but maybe he'll make up for it when he gets a job at Intel someday now that he's inspired!

Great museum with an incredible collection of historical computers. And the gift shop is terrific with a rotating collection of clothes and collectibles.

Free parking, free entry and free tour if you request it in advance. A friend and I had an awesome time because everything was so underwhelming as other fellow Yelper has posted. You can be there an hour and spend a good time also at the adjacent gift shop. Everything is maintained super clean, modern, interactive and didactic. They have a kids room for demo activities. You can also take a pic and send a postcard to yourself via email, which is pretty cool. We loved learning where the silicon comes from...basically sand is the raw material and they form cylindrical ingots that they cut in thin disks. Super interesting even if you are not into tech. We saw a tour that was there the same Saturday we went and join them even though we were not part of the group. The guide did an awesome job. Thanks for this great free for all ages entertainment.

So we got our hotel room and then looked to see what was happening around us cause we did not want to waist the rest of the day, we found in the lobby a wall full of advertisements for fun.... It was just sitting and smiling very koi like ,,, we plucked it and put in out pocket and said ohhh !!!! ahhh!!! then i looked it up on my handy dandy i phone and we got there in about 1 min, I walked up to the counter and said what does a girl gotta do around here to get a tour of this dive,,, and the guy looked up and smiled and said i will take you.... " "not only have i always wanted to say that,, but i think he always wanted to hear some one say that" the tour was very fun not a big place at all but he was very informative and i learned a lot and i would for sure revisit this tiny MIGHTY cute museum of American modern history,,,, booon digggdonng boon !!!!!!!!!!! You no the intel sound

If you ever wanted to know how Intel started as a company and who the men were who started it all, you've found the right place. If you're fascinated by computer chips and clean rooms, again, you've found the right place. And if you cannot forget the five Intel chimes and love hands on exhibits for the 10-12 year old set, you have definitely found the right place. The Intel museum is in the back of the Intel company store. If you don't bleed silicon, stay away. Admission is free and easy parking.

For a free museum, this is pretty decent. The museum is small and will take about an hour or so to go through everything. There are a few interactive & hands on stations, and plenty of technology to look it (the chips). I wouldn't recommend for anyone to make a special trip just for the Intel Museum, but it was enjoyable and I don't regret coming here. If you have some time to check it out and you're in the area, it's a nice place.

The museum is pretty small and quite underwhelming. I've done work in semiconductor fab and I know a little about computer chips, and there are so so many ways that this museum should have been more interesting whether from the history perspective or a technology one. That said I do commend the attempt by a big corp to accommodate visitors. I wish the other big tech companies would do this kind of thing.

Small, but very informative. They have a display on fab operations, the histories of the Intel processors and of the biographies of the founders and their achievements. I work in the Valley, so this is a must see for me! Even on a Saturday, the crowds are thin and there is a lot of parking. Free admission!

Great little museum that tells and shows the history of the Intel micro processor from back then to current today. All of the exhibits are small but do a fine job for displaying and bringing to life the history. Several interactive hands on displays that are a lot of fun to try. This is a great museum for both school aged children and also for adults. You will also find a small company store right next to the museum where you can purchase tshirts, blue Intel man dolls, note pads, pencils, jackets, etc. Even if you don't think this is such a big deal museum I think it is: ---located in the heart of silicon valley, ---mover and shaker from the silicon valley, ---and if you are using a computer to read my review there is probably an Intel core processor soldered on to the motherboard of your computer...and yes that would be both Mac and PC, baby. While you're there, try on the bunny suit, it might cheer ya up.

Fun museum with great exhibits. If you are staying nearby, or happen to work in teh area it is well worth a stop. It is free! Let's not forget who put Silicon into Silicon Valley -- that's Intel. Intel is Silicon Valley's oldest company, and without it there would not be a Silicon Valley, it would be a nice and sleepy college town with Stanford at its core. Intel's founders invented the microprocessor and then revolutionized the process by using silicon in its chips. Yeah, there is some Intel corporate info at the museum, but let's face it -- it's hard to avoid how important this company is to humanity.

It's a rather nice museum after renovations. It was closed last year so didn't get a chance to see it last time. However, it was a nice surprise. You can easily do this in under an hour. Exhibits are pretty straightforward with nothing jaw-breaking. Intel can't disclose all its secrets here. LOL. Anyways, museum shop has some nice discounts for discontinued toys and stuff. A few more techie things but nothing too ridiculous like microprocessors. I got a nice 4-color pen to clip onto my lanyard:)

We did a free guided tour with Drew Jones. it was 5 stars!! Not only does the intel museum have free visitor parking, it is free visitor parking. The place is interactive and if the guided tours are all like the one Drew gave, theyre informational, instructive, approachable and funny. Definitely worth a visit!

This is a cute little museum inside Intel. It features the history of the company, computers and processors. There are some small hands-on exhibits. Kids can try on bunny suits that employees wear in the clean room. It's also a real kick to see some of the old technology. There's a gift shop that sells Intel merchandise like pens, mugs, t-shirts, etc. Best of all the museum is free.

Love this place! Purchased a few items, badge holders and pens, shirts and a web cam cover. It was interactive and clean. I really enjoyed it.. great for children too. Shows the entire history on Intel. Customer service was Awesome!!!!!

So I had one last day in the area and some time to kill - tick/tock - and was told that there was a museum in the Silicon Valley area that I could visit. Suggested along with the other big thing people do when in the area - taking a selfie by the giant Facebook logo - which I passed on. So anyway if you find your way to Intel they have a parking structure where visitors can park and you can walk over to the museum that has friendly signs showing an outsider where to go. I would expect that, of course, from a company that makes CPUs - you wouldn't want your visitors getting lost like an errant electrical signal on a wire leading to nowhere. Place was sort of under construction while I was there but still easy enough to find the way. The museum is pretty much about the history of CPUs - yeah they make/made other stuff like ethernet and RAID adapters and although some of those other products are mentioned the exhibit mostly focuses on the CPU. I didn't take the guided tour - just walked through and read the texts. Not sure how interesting this would be to a person that doesn't care about the technical "under the hood" granular details of computing - I made it a point to come out here so obviously I'm biased but I could see how it might not be for everyone. Aside from the exhibit they have a merchandise shop where you can buy t-shirts of all sizes with the Intel logo. No "evil inside" shirts though. Place wasn't too crowded but as I was leaving there was a large group of kids about to take a tour so it all depends on your timing. Open to the public with free visitor parking and free entry to the museum - even for AMD fanbois. Right off Mission College Boulevard - giant complex that you can't miss - make a left as soon as you get in the entrance to get to the parking structure. Your mileage and clock rate may vary greatly.

Got some friends from out of town? Make a quick appointment online and take them out to see a little Silicon Valley magic. It's an easy way to kill about half an hour plus it's off their bucket list!