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AUSTIN HUMAN CAPITAL — BUILD YOUR CAREER
Tech Sectors and Clusters
The Austin high tech industry is both extensive and diverse, with leading firms of all sizes in both established and emerging market sectors and clusters. Take a look at the Austin Tech Directory or Austin Jobs Portal here at AustinHumanCapital.com to get a feel of the number and variety of companies that are thriving here.
Our growth and leadership in world technology is also being driven by several industry clusters where Austin has unique advantages. Learn more about these key clusters below.
Biotechnology, Pharmaceuticals and Medical Technology
As the geographic center of Texas and the home of both The University of Texas at Austin and The University of Texas System, Austin is a driver for biomedical and pharmaceutical innovation around the state. Today, Austin boasts approximately 85 companies in the medical product, pharmaceutical or bioscience areas.
This year, the Milken Institute included Austin in its ranking of the top 12 biotech and life science centers, in company with such powerhouses as San Diego, Boston and the Research Triangle. The study noted that clustering innovative activity is imperative and that only a handful of metropolitan areas have succeeded on a scale necessary to ensure industry sustainability in their regions. The rankings were based on the biotechnology innovation pipeline as well as the economic outcomes of the biotech sector.
The State of Texas has for a century been the national and global leader in the energy industry. As the world looks forward to a future beyond fossil fuels, Texas is committed to leading the way in renewable energy. For three years, Texas has been the largest generator of wind power in the nation and has enormous capacity to increase production from wind, solar and biomass sources. As of April 2007, Texas installed enough wind generating capacity to power approximately one million homes.
In Austin, our public utility Austin Energy is a recognized national leader in conservation and clean energy programs. Its GreenChoice is the nation’s largest and most successful retail renewable energy program delivering more than 665 million kWh of electricity annually to residential and commercial customers. Nearly 500 Austin businesses use GreenChoice power, as does Austin Independent School District and Austin City Hall. The city’s Green Building Program, another nationally ranked program, raises the bar on sustainability and energy efficiency in new construction of all kinds. Austin Energy has plans to build the renewables’ share of Austin’s energy portfolio to 30 percent by 2020 and to build solar power’s share to 100MW by 2020.
A public-private partnership has initiated the first Texas Clean Energy Park as an Austin-based clean energy campus dedicated to development and innovation in business, research, education, and training for the clean energy industry. The 140-acre park will be a collaborative community for renewable energy companies, research and education facilities developing efficient new clean energy technologies side by side with innovative applications.
Key players in the data center industry have operations in Austin, whether headquarters, R&D, manufacturing, or mission critical enterprise data centers of their own: AMD, IBM, Citicorp, Cisco, Dell, Hewlett-Packard, Home Depot, Intel, Oracle, and Sun are some of the names on this roster.
Austin is a central time zone city with a low risk for natural disasters. Real estate is well-priced and available. The telephony infrastructure is in place and the area's energy providers work hand in hand with industry looking for increased efficiency and greener solutions. A long history in data centers and related technology and services means that the area is replete with necessary support services and a qualified technical workforce. These include early-stage firms now seeing success sprout from their new ideas to the industry, such as ColdWatt, NetEffect and Uplogix.
Austin is a haven for creative professionals as well as high tech engineering brainpower, and digital convergence technology industries capitalize on the creativity and hipness of Austin to drive economic growth. A young, indie-savvy community fuels Austin’s thriving game, mobile, web, multimedia, TV and film industries. Austin offers a workforce filled with experienced and successful production, engineering, design, art, marketing, sales, operations and executive management talent.
The technology sector in Austin is diverse, innovative and next generation-driven. Austin has a wealth of hardware manufacturers, software developers, and technology service providers who have sited their research, development, and design centers in Austin due to the region’s extraordinary clustering of like operations and talent. Austin companies provide development applications and tools; devices, platforms and peripherals; middleware and development software; art, animation, audio and video software tools; and network technologies and services.
Austin’s media arts talent fuels thriving game, mobile, web, multimedia, TV and film industries. Our community of game development studios and publishers make Austin one of the nation’s top game development centers. Midway, Nintendo, NCsoft, Sony Online Entertainment, Take Two Interactive, and Ubisoft are in Austin. With one of the most vibrant game development communities in the world, as well as Austin’s role in expanding the platforms available for interactive entertainment, Austin is a premier region for the new era in entertainment, communications and collaboration.
Austin ranks as the number two American city for filmmakers, according to MovieMaker magazine, which lauded the city as on its way to becoming the new mecca of American moviemaking and noted its deep pool of crew and talent. Institutions like the SXSW Music, Media, Film and Interactive Conferences; the Austin Film Festival; the University of Texas Film Institute; Burnt Orange Productions; Austin Studios and the Austin Film Society have put Austin on the map, as have the numerous locally-lensed productions and Austin-based filmmakers like Robert Rodriguez, Richard Linklater, and Mike Judge. The strong presence of related creative sectors, such as the large, vibrant and renowned music industry, further enrich and enliven the pool of creative talent.
For over 30 years, the semiconductor industry has been an integral part of the development of Austin as a technology center. Early investment by industry leaders like Motorola, Advanced Micro Devices and Applied Materials as well as the establishment of research consortia (MCC and SEMATECH) helped to transform Austin from sleepy college town to “technopolis.”
Today, the semiconductor industry in Austin has been given a new lease on life with the new Samsung 300mm wafer fab facility, their second wafer fab in Austin. Continued confidence in the business climate and talented workforce by semiconductor industry leaders such as this, as well as innovations and advancements into tomorrow’s technologies, will ensure Austin will remain a major hub for the global semiconductor industry well into the future.
Nearly 100 semiconductor-related companies employ over 16,000 in the Austin area.
Austin’s renowned business environment is nurturing a fast-growing wireless industry and the kind of innovative collaboration that has earned the region a reputation as “Number One in Creativity” according to the Harvard Business Review. Austin is driving the build-out of a wireless future where voice, data and digital media converge on open wireless and computing platforms, enabling global connections using new devices, intelligent networks and rich media.
With vast experience and knowledge in the semi-conductor, software and wireless industries, as well as digital media, music and motion pictures, Austin provides unique advantages to help companies take the vision of a wireless future and make it a full fledged reality:
The wireless industry in Austin has grown to include the entire value chain from research and development to materials and chips, hardware, software, systems and services. Industry leaders such as Motorola, Qualcomm, Freescale, Intel, Cisco Systems all call Austin home. The decision by the Wi-Fi Alliance in 2003 to locate their headquarters in Austin ensures that Austin will remain a major hub for the wireless industry well into the future.
