Chandler, city, Maricopa county, south-central Arizona, U.S. Founded in the 1890s, the city was named for veterinarian and real-estate developer A.J. Chandler, who built an extensive agricultural canal system in the area. Chandler is a winter resort in a cotton, alfalfa, citrus fruit, pecan, sugar beet, and cattle-raising region of the irrigated Salt River valley. The city emerged in the late 1980s as an important centre for the manufacture of semiconductors and other computer-related technology, and city leaders have dubbed it “the high-tech oasis of the silicon desert.” Williams Air Force Base (1941), home of the nation’s first jet air school, is 10 miles (16 km) east. The Gila River Reservation is immediately to the west. Inc. 1920. Pop. (2010) 236,123; Phoenix-Mesa-Glendale Metro Area, 4,192,887; (2020) 275,987; Phoenix-Mesa-Chandler Metro Area, 4,845,832.