Half of top 10 US ‘dream employers’ are in California, Forbes says. Which ones?
Daydreaming about new career opportunities? If you’re in California, you’re in luck.
California companies accounted for half of the top 10 businesses on Forbes’ 2026 list of America’s Dream Employers.
Forbes surveyed college students and working people around the United States about their dream employers.
A total of 83 California-based companies made Forbes’ list, which features 500 companies in all.
Today’s workers are focused on learning and development as well as financial security, work-life balance and finding purpose in their jobs, according to a 2025 Deloitte survey of millennial and Generation Z employees.
The nation’s top employers are “making these dreams a reality for their workers, offering generous compensation, mission-driven initiatives, challenging assignments and benefits that promote mental wellbeing and flexible schedules,” Forbes said in a Nov. 18 article.
Here’s a look at some of California’s top employers, according to Forbes:
What’s the No. 1 ‘dream employer’ in the nation?
NVIDIA, headquartered in Santa Clara, ranked No. 1 on Forbes’ 2026 list of dream employers.
The semiconductor manufacturer was founded in 1993 and made $130.5 billion in revenue in 2025, according to Forbes.
NVIDIA CEO and president Jensen Huang Huang ranks among the world’s wealthiest billionaires, Forbes said, with a net worth of $155.5 billion as of Tuesday, Feb. 3.
NVIDIA also took first place on Forbes’ list of the most trusted companies in the nation, The Fresno Bee previously reported.
Where are California’s best places to work?
A total of five California companies landed in the top 10 on Forbes’ list of the dream employers on Forbes’ list.
Tech giants Google and Apple took the No. 4 and No. 7 spots, respectively.
Entertainment company Universal Music Group came in fifth place, while professional networking platform LinkedIn took the No. 9 spot.
According to Forbes, the following California-based companies ranked in the top 40:
- No. 1: NVIDIA in Santa Clara
- No. 4: Google in Mountain View
- No. 5. Universal Music Group in Santa Monica
- No. 7: Apple in Cupertino
- No. 9: LinkedIn in Sunnyvale
- No. 12: Epic Games in Cary
- No. 15: Salesforce in San Francisco
- No. 18: Netflix in Los Gatos
- No. 21: Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena
- No. 24: Adobe in San Jose
- No. 26: AirBnB in San Francisco
- No. 27: Electronic Arts in Redwood City
- No. 29: Intuit in Mountain View
- No. 32: Cisco Systems in San Jose
- No. 39: Children’s Hospital in Los Angeles
What are the best employers in the US?
According to Forbes, these were the 10 best places to work in the United States in 2026:
- No. 1: NVIDIA in Santa Clara
- No. 2: St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital in Memphis, Tennessee
- No. 3: Microsoft in Redmond, Washington
- No. 4: Google in Mountain View
- No. 5: Universal Music Group in Santa Monica
- No. 6: IBM in Armonk, New York
- No. 7: Apple in Cupertino
- No. 8: Nintendo in Redmond, Washington
- No. 9: LinkedIn in Sunnyvale
- No. 10: Shriners Hospitals for Children in Tampa, Florida
How did Forbes come up with its ranking?
To rank America’s dream employers, Forbes said it surveyed thousands of U.S. college students and workers in partnership with Statista.
“The students were asked which employers they considered to be dream employers and were then asked to rate how excited they would be to receive an offer from the company,” Forbes said in the study. “Student participants were also asked how appealing the employer was based on criteria including growth opportunities, quality of work, salary and company reputation.”
Working folks were asked to rate their companies based on “wages, health benefits, professional development, working conditions and the ability workers have to express ideas,” Forbes said.
Researchers also asked employees if “whether they would recommend their current employer or previous employer” within the past two years.
Data from previous employee surveys with Statista were included, Forbes said.
This story was originally published February 4, 2026 at 5:00 AM with the headline "Half of top 10 US ‘dream employers’ are in California, Forbes says. Which ones?."
