Business View - December 2014 117
boasts 294 high-tech manufacturing firms employing
nearly 35,000 people, growing 19 percent in the last
year alone. High tech manufacturing currently repre-
sents about 60 percent of the region’s manufacturing
employment.
Many of the top computer and microchip firms have
established major design and production centers in
Austin. Austin is home to Samsung’s largest semicon-
ductor production center outside of Korea, to which a
new R&D center was recently added. Singapore-based
contract electronics manufacturer Flextronics is ex-
panding its footprint in Central Texas as well.
Austin maintains multiple burgeoning industries, in-
cluding clean energy and power technology. As an es-
tablished center for clean technology headquarters,
R&D and manufacturing operations, Austin has more
than 220 existing clean technology companies that
employ more than 14,500 people.
Central Texas is home to industry-leading wind tur-
bine and photovoltaic manufacturers, and supports
clean energy research and development, biofuels and
energy storage. It’s also home to The University of
Texas Clean Energy Incubator, a clean energy start-up
resource provider; as well as the revolutionary Pecan
Street Research Institute, known as the largest smart
grid demonstration project in the world and founded
as a partnership between the city of Austin, Austin
Chamber of Commerce, Austin Energy, Environmental
Defense Fund and the University of Texas at Austin to
beta-test new smart grid technologies.
Austin's expanding health care system and grow-
ing cluster of innovative life sciences companies are
changing the face of healthcare in Austin and the
world. Austin’s best-in-class research facilities, highly
PUBLIC SECTOR
