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Semiconductor Industry For more information about our capabilities or to confidentially request information or a site search in our region, contact Adriana Cruz, Vice President, Global Corporate Recruitment, at 512.322.5626 or acruz@austinchamber.com. Adriana will be at several industry conferences around the country during 2008. See our Calendars page for more information.

Austin is recognized across the globe for our great quality of life and dynamic high-tech economy. 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.

A recognized center for innovation, Austin is home to 3,300 tech companies with 100,000 employees. Nearly 100 semiconductor-related companies employ over 16,000. And, while Austin is recognized for such top names as Dell, Samsung Austin Semiconductor, Whole Foods Market, IBM, Freescale Semiconductor, Advanced Micro Devices, Intel and many others, the regional economy is also highly diversified and comprised of many small and medium-sized businesses in a range of industries.

“Austin is a high-tech city with an attractive quality of life. It is an appealing environment for the innovators we need at Freescale.”
—Michel Mayer, CEO, Freescale Semiconductor

“One of our primary motivators for moving to Austin was good, highly trained people.”
—Dr. H. K. Park, Samsung Austin Semiconductor

Largest Wafer Fab in the U.S.
Samsung Electronics Co., the world’s second largest chip maker, completed a new 300mm fabrication facility right next door to their 200mm wafer fab which opened in 1996, creating nearly 1,000 new jobs in Austin. Samsung’s $3.5-$4 billion investment is one of the largest single investments by a foreign company in the nation and is the largest fab in the U.S. This is Samsung’s only location in the world outside of South Korea that manufacturers chips for the electronics giant.

Green Campus
Advanced Micro Devices, a global technology company with a 25-year history in Austin, will complete a new 60-acre Lone Star Campus in southwest Austin that is striving for a Gold LEED certification from the U.S. Green Building Council through features such as rainwater collection, recycling systems and renewable energy.

Betting on Solar
Applied Materials, the world’s largest producer of semiconductor chip-making equipment, announced the installation of the largest solar array in Austin outside of their facility in Northeast Austin — showcasing their desire to create a regional solar power manufacturing industry in Texas. Applied Materials has been in Austin for almost 20 years and is home to their largest manufacturing facility.

Austin is not only a dynamic business destination, our workforce is a dynamic business asset. It’s all about the people, and the labor pool in Austin is by far one of the most innovative, young and educated in the country.

Our ability to attract and retain talent led to our population increasing to over 1.5 million in 2006. The region’s population grew 21% between 2000 and 2006, a rate nearly twice that of the state (12.7%) and more than three times that of the nation (6.4%).

We are also younger than the country, with nearly half the population (46%) in the working years between 18 and 44. Our median age (32.5 years) is four years younger than the national median (36.4 years).

The population is also more educated than the national average with nearly 39% having at least a bachelors degree (compared with the national average of 27%).

Within a 100-mile radius of Austin, you will find 38 colleges and universities anchored by the University of Texas at Austin, one of the nation’s largest universities. Training and experience garnered by graduates of UT-Austin, which has one of the largest and most diverse university semiconductor research programs in the world, puts the school among the industry’s most well regarded workforce pipelines.

Austin Community College and SEMATECH have also partnered with the industry on an innovative internship program to train technicians and engineers in nanoelectronics. The Austin region features several training providers including Austin Community College, Skillpoint Alliance and WorkSource who develop customized training programs for the semiconductor and information technology industries. These providers are able to adapt to the training needs of our companies and have funding systems in place to support the changing needs of the industry in the future.

In 1988, SEMATECH, the global semiconductor research consortium, selected Austin as its headquarters. For nearly 20 years, SEMATECH has provided Austin companies, universities and the semiconductor industry a partner in accelerating the commercialization of technology innovations into manufacturing solutions.

SEMATECH has continued to expand its operations and now includes the Advanced Materials Research Center (AMRC), the Advanced Technology Development Facility(ATDF), and the International SEMATECH Manufacturing Initiative (ISMI).

As a world-class research institution, the University of Texas at Austin has annual research expenditures of more than $411 million, with engineering research dollars exceeding $137 million. UT Austin’s Electrical and Computer Engineering Departmenthas ranked as one of the top 10 in the country for more than a decade, while the University ranks in the top 10 nationally for the number of science and engineering doctoral degrees. UT Austin is home to more than 100 organized research units, several of which will impact the future of semiconductor technology development and commercialization.

Researchers and industry partners will soon have access to the world’s biggest computer resource. Housed at the Texas Advanced Computing Center at UT, the world’s largest supercomputer, dubbed “Ranger” will go online in January 2008, weighing in with 62,976 CPU cores, 125 terabytes of memory, 1.7 petabytes of disk space, and 504 teraflops of performance. Developed in partnership with Sun and AMD, the system cost $30 million in hardware alone and was funded by a grant from the National Science Foundation. The system will be six or seven times larger than any of the existing systems researchers have access to today. In addition to leading academic research in various disciplines, technology companies from the large to the small will be able apply for time on the supercomputer to extend their own research abilities.

The Emerging Technology Fund (ETF), along with other incentives programs such as the Texas Enterprise Fund, provides financial benefits to semiconductor businesses creating high quality new jobs in Texas. The goal of ETF is to expedite innovation and commercialization of research and increase higher education applied technology research capabilities in the state. A variety of state and local tax exemption and tax credit programs are also available.

Austin provides businesses a framework for innovation and growth based on outstanding university-based research, an entrepreneurial culture, venture funding, a broad array of support services and a rich pool of intellectual talent and leadership.

In 2006, over 2,300 patents were assigned to inventors in Austin. Austin’s per capita patent activity consistently outpaces the national rate and clearly showed Austin’s competitiveness as a location for research and innovation. In 2006, the Wall Street Journal named Austin third Most Inventive City due to patent activity.

“The leading global regions to keep an eye on in coming years are San Diego, California; Austin, Texas; Cambridge, England; Bangalore, India; and Shenzhen, China.”
— Ross DeVol, Milken Institute Global Conference, 2003.

Austin boasts proven infrastructure in transportation and telecommunications and utilities to satisfy diverse operations — from sensitive data center operations to semiconductor manufacturing — as well as Fortune 500 firms and international businesses. True to Austin’s reputation as a technology center, businesses can rely on sophisticated and reliable information technologies to maintain a competitive advantage.

High tech industries sensitive to fluctuations in power quality thrive in Austin. Area providers are experienced in providing specialized technical and engineering support to the semiconductor industry. Austin Energy, the municipal utility, has achieved outage duration and outage frequency rates that are among the best in the nation. In 2007, Austin Energy lowered electric rates for companies whose electricity consumption reaches 25,000 kW.

The City of Austin supplies approximately three billion gallons of water annually to six significant water users, four of which are semi-conductor manufacturers. Long range water supply plans to ensure the water supply for the next 100 years are also in place.

Austin is strategically located between the east and west coasts and centrally located relative to the major Texas metros of San Antonio, Dallas and Houston. Austin sits on Interstate 35, the primary trade route between Mexico and Canada. Austin-Bergstrom International Airport (ABIA) is a modern international airport served by 12 major airlines with 300 daily arrivals and departures including direct flights to more than 80 domestic destinations and 3 foreign cities throughout the year. ABIA also features a nearly 300,000 square foot cargo port that is one of the most sophisticated in the nation.

Many “Best of” lists attest to the incomparable quality of life found in Austin. The Best Place for Business and Careers. The Best City for Singles. The Best City for Relocating Families. The Live Music Capital of the World. Ask anyone who lives here and they’ll tell you it’s as good as advertised. We have it all — highly rated public school districts, entertainment venues for the outdoor type and the art lover, home to rock climbers, Tour de France champions, rock and rollers, movie stars, theater lovers, and the cream of the creative class.