The editors of the MIT Technology Review named San Diego’s Illumina as No. 1 and Qualcomm as No. 18 in it’s annual list of the 50 smartest companies in the world.
“We didn’t count patents or PhDs; instead, we asked whether a company had made strides in the past year that will define its field,” the magazine said. “The biggest of these strides happened at Illumina, which is driving down the price of DNA sequencing to levels that will change the practice of medicine.
“Familiar names such as Apple and Facebook aren’t on this list because reputation doesn’t matter. We’re highlighting where important innovations are happening right now.”
Qualcomm was cited for making breakthroughs in “neuromorphic” computing and achieving 30 percent revenue growth in 2013.
This list was published in the magazine’s March-April issue, which is on newsstands now.