Companies in Irvine: the city's largest employers, 10 public headquarters and Orange County's 106,961 businesses

This page is for people looking for companies in Irvine, California: job seekers, companies relocating or looking for suppliers, researchers and B2B sellers working Orange County. It covers the city's own largest employers list, the public companies headquartered in Irvine and in the rest of the county, the Census count of businesses, the records for checking a company, and a worked example in medical devices. Census figures are published for Orange County as a whole, so the business counts here cover the county.

Irvine's largest employers

The City of Irvine publishes a principal employers schedule in its Annual Comprehensive Financial Report, compiled by the city's Community Development Department. The report for the year ended June 30, 2025 lists:

The ten employ 39,469 people, 23.83% of a city labor force of 165,600. The list has turned over since 2016, when Blizzard Entertainment (2,622), Broadcom (1,900), Parker Hannifin (1,700), Nationstar Mortgage, Glidewell Laboratories, 24 Hour Fitness and Thales Avionics were all in the top ten. Health care and medical devices filled the gap: Kaiser, B. Braun and Hoag are new to the list.

For the whole county, the County of Orange's report for fiscal 2024-25, drawing on the Orange County Business Journal's Book of Lists, ranks The Walt Disney Co. first with 36,000 employees, then UC Irvine (34,085), Providence Southern California (25,155), the County of Orange (18,811) and Kaiser Permanente (10,293). The two reports count UC Irvine differently, so quote each with its source.

Public companies headquartered in Irvine

Ranked by revenue in each company's latest 10-K, with the head office on its cover page:

A blank employee cell means we didn't take a headcount from that filing. The ten reported $75.30 billion between them. Skyworks completed its acquisition of Qorvo in October 2026, according to an 8-K that keeps Irvine as its head office, so its next 10-K will be much larger than the figure above. Headcounts are company-wide; Rivian's includes its consolidated joint venture.

Elsewhere in Orange County

Many of the county's largest public companies are a short drive from Irvine:

Two companies with Orange County addresses at the SEC are left out: Banc of California's 2025 10-K gives 11611 San Vicente Boulevard, Los Angeles, and Onterris, the former Montrose Environmental Group, gives North Little Rock, Arkansas. For the statewide ranking, see companies in California.

How many businesses are in Orange County

The Census Bureau's County Business Patterns (CBP) counts locations with paid employees. For Orange County, California in 2023:

In bands: 92,711 establishments have 1 to 19 employees, 11,837 have 20 to 99 and 2,413 have 100 or more. CBP counts each location separately, leaves out self-employed people and most government workers, and measures employment in the pay period including March 12, 2023.

What Orange County businesses do

Average pay is our calculation from CBP payroll. Two things set the county apart. Professional services is the biggest sector by count, 17.4% of establishments, and pays $113,648 on average. And wholesale trade pays more than $100,000, which fits a county where distributors such as Ingram Micro run head offices. The 633 management-of-companies establishments, mostly corporate and regional head offices, employ 58,837 people.

Medical devices are the local specialty. Medical equipment and supplies manufacturing (NAICS 3391) has 278 establishments with 26,152 employees, and 7 of them have 1,000 or more employees. The Census Bureau doesn't publish the 250-to-499 cell for this industry; the total less the published cells implies 2 establishments in it.

Finding and checking an Irvine company

Before signing with a local supplier, confirm its bizfile record is active, check any trade license, and ask for references from companies your size.

Prospecting Orange County's medical device makers

Device makers buy quality, regulatory and validation services constantly, because every new product, line or supplier change has to be documented for the FDA. At the largest companies that buying runs through procurement; at the mid-sized ones, a quality or regulatory director often decides.

Illustrative example. The company, rates and results are fictional, to show the method.

Laguna Validation (lagunavalidation.example) qualifies production equipment and cleanrooms for device manufacturers and wants Orange County makers with 20 to 249 employees.

• Medical equipment manufacturing establishments with 20 to 49 employees: 25; 50 to 99: 13; 100 to 249: 16. That's 54 sites.
• It assumes two-thirds make devices that need equipment validation rather than simple supplies: about 36 prospects.
• Four projects a year at $85,000 each would be $340,000 in revenue.

It times outreach to new line installs, facility moves and FDA inspection findings, and targets the quality director with the engineering manager in copy. Spotting which of the 54 are adding lines or moving, and who owns validation, is the research Bebop does for each account.

Subject: Validation for [Company]'s new [line or cleanroom]

Hi [first name],

When a new line goes in, validation is usually what holds up the first production lot, and your team is already stretched with the day job.

We write and run IQ, OQ and PQ protocols for device makers across Orange County, using your templates so the files drop straight into your quality system. Could I send the schedule from a recent line install so you can see how long it took?

[Your name], Laguna Validation

Next step: prepare for accounts like these with enterprise account research.