In an effort to continue bolster its business nationwide, Ford is expanding its technical center in the heart of Silicon Valley.

Ford CEO Mark Fields says the company plans to continue focusing on “great” products for a wide audience, but also wants to take advantage of the innovative pace on the West Coast.

“I think it's very important for us,” says Fields. “We’re never going to take our eye off being a great developer of cars, utilities and trucks. But there A virtual test environment based on gaming software that is developed by Ford. Image credit: Fordcould be opportunities for us, so it’s very important to open up that lens,” he tells journalists following a recent speech in San Francisco.

Ford has had a small presence in Silicon Valley since 2012, and has slowly been growing. The company opened its Research & Innovation Center in January 2015 in a repurposed building in the Stanford University Research Park.

Currently, it has 40 employees, but that number is expected to increase to 65 by mid-summer, and double by the end of the year—making it one of the largest automotive-oriented research centers in the San Francisco Bay Area.

Only the Mercedes-Benz Research & Development Center in Sunnyvale is the largest.

“Information technology used to help us do the heavy lifting in the back office,” says Don Butler, executive director of Connected Vehicles and Services at Ford. “Now it’s become our business.”

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