Firsthand Technology Value Fund Inc. : Firsthand Technology Value Fund Discloses Top Portfolio Holdings and Preliminary December 31, 2012 Assets

Firsthand Technology Value Fund Discloses Top Portfolio Holdings

and Preliminary December 31, 2012 Assets

San Jose, CA, January 14, 2013- Firsthand Technology Value Fund, Inc. (NASDAQ: SVVC) (the "Fund"), a publicly-traded venture capital fund that invests in technology and cleantech companies, disclosed today that its top five holdings as of December 31, 2012 were Twitter, Facebook, Silicon Genesis, QMAT, and SolarCity.

	1.	Twitter, Inc. is an online social networking service that lets users send and receive 140-character messages ("tweets"). As of December 31, 2012, the Fund's investment in Twitter consisted of 981,200 shares of preferred and common stock and represented approximately 8.5% of the Fund's gross assets.
	2.	Facebook, Inc. (NASDAQ: FB) is an online social networking service with more than 1 billion active users worldwide. As of December 31, 2012, the Fund's investment in Facebook consisted of 600,000 shares of common stock and represented approximately 8.1% of the Fund's gross assets.
	3.	Silicon Genesis Corp. is a developer of layer transfer technology for the semiconductor and solar industries. As of December 31, 2012, Silicon Genesis securities represented approximately 3.2% of the Fund's gross assets and consisted of approximately 8.5 million shares of preferred and common stock, various debt securities, and warrants to purchase additional common and preferred stock.
	4.	QMAT is developing advanced materials technologies for applications in the electronics industry. As of December 31, 2012, the Fund's investment in QMAT consisted of 6 million shares of preferred stock plus warrants to purchase additional shares, and represented approximately 3.0% of the Fund's gross assets.
	5.	SolarCity Corp. (NASDAQ: SCTY) is a leading installer of commercial and residential solar photovoltaic systems.  As of December 31, 2012, the Fund's investment in SolarCity consisted of 426,300 shares of common stock and represented approximately 2.2% of the Fund's gross assets.

The Fund also announced that, as of December 31, 2012, preliminary gross assets of the Fund were approximately $197 million, or $23.03 per share, including cash of approximately $15.99 per share. As of that date, the Fund's top five holdings constituted 25.0% of the Fund's gross assets. Complete financial statements and a detailed schedule of investments will be made available with the Fund's annual report filing on Form 10-K in March 2013.