More States are Building Tech Hubs

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There’s no denying that Silicon Valley in California is still the crème de la crème of the tech world. However, other locales are establishing themselves as hotbeds for high-tech. Chief Executive’s Top 10 States for High-Tech include companies that make the necessary components to foster growth in a variety of high-tech sectors, including biotech, telecommunications, cloud computing, hardware and much more.

For states that meet that criteria, Texas is No. 1. Austin, home to Dell, also has become a high-tech mecca for startups and is an operational hub for 3M, Apple, Google, Amazon and others. The Austin Technology Council supports the growth goals of its member businesses by providing knowledge and access in the areas of capital, talent, business mentoring and networking.

Florida is No. 2, home to Applied Genetic Technologies, Craig Technologies and JDCPhosphate. Innovation labs and co-working spaces for startups are sprouting up across the Sunshine State, including LAB Miami, the Florida Innovation Hub at the University of Florida in Gainesville and the South Florida Accelerator.

“The Tar Heel State’s Research Triangle—Raleigh, Durham and Chapel Hill—is home to 3 top research universities, which, along with the area’s federal labs and contractors, conduct $2B in R&D annually.”

Home to SAS, Red Hat and an operational hub for Lenovo, IBM and Cisco, North Carolina ranks 3rd. The Tar Heel State’s Research Triangle—Raleigh, Durham and Chapel Hill—are home to three of the nation’s top research universities, which, along with the area’s federal labs and contract research companies, conduct annually $2 billion worth of research and development.

In Nevada, No. 4, Reno has become a tech hub in the high desert, attracting the likes of Tesla, Apple and Amazon. Las Vegas also is up and coming, with #vegastech as the voice of the city’s tech community. Tech-based co-working spaces in Las Vegas include Switch’s “Innevation” Center and Work in Progress. Nevada is home to CAEK, Switch and NJVC.

With SPARC, Infor and Omatic, South Carolina ranks 5th. Greenville is a nationally-recognized emerging tech hub, supported by CoWork Greenville, White Whale Studios and the NEXT Innovation Center. Charleston’s tech community also is growing, and the Charleston Digital Corridor is a community-sourced initiative to attract, nurture and promote the region’s tech economy.

Wrapping up the Top 10 States for High-Tech and the companies that either have headquarters or operational hubs are: Arizona, with SiteLock, Nextiva and Ulthera; Kentucky, with Lexmark, ACS and CSI; New Mexico, with Los Alamos Technical Associates, Applied Research Associates and Lovelace Respiratory Research Institute; Delaware, with Amazon, Infosys and Delasoft; Michigan, with Compuware, Syntel and Tata Technologies; and Oklahoma, with Dell, HP and Xerox.

States wanting to be known as tech hubs would do well to invest in innovation labs and co-working spaces for startups, particularly if such facilities are located near established research centers or universities in locales that also boast high-quality living standards.