The US awards 12 regional 'Tech Hubs', aiming to fund America's next Silicon Valleys

The week after I graduated from engineering school in Massachusetts, I loaded up my old Jeep Wagoneer with two school buddies, camping supplies, and snacks. Thus began our trek across the country to the famed Silicon Valley, which, for a recent grad and proto-geek, seemed like the Promised Land.

Silicon Valley was the new nickname for a region that roughly encompasses San Francisco and Berkeley down to San Jose and is now the home to tech giants like Apple, Google, Meta, and more. When I moved there, Apple was just a small startup, and the entrepreneurial culture was evident everywhere you turned.

Back then, all parties turned into deep discussions of new tech opportunities. If you needed an obscure electronics part, you could get it from someplace that was merely a giant traffic jam away. Plus, whatever skill or domain expertise you were hiring for, there were qualified candidates living within commuting distance. Oh, and other members of your gym were as likely to be potential VC investors as partners (or competitors).

Also: AI accelerates software development to breakneck speeds, but measuring that is tricky

No matter where I've lived since my decade in the Bay Area, whether New Jersey, Florida, or here in Central Oregon, I've never found that deep sense of striving for the future -- and possibility -- that you could feel in every coffee shop, cubicle farm, party, and factory floor in Silicon Valley.

The US has long dreamed of other regions becoming more like Silicon Valley. What if there could be other regionalized ecosystems of innovation, tech jobs, production resources, and investment capital? What could that do for American competitiveness and even national security?

That's what the CHIPS and Science Act means to make happen. It aims to boost US semiconductor design and production by investing $52 billion (with a "B") in subsidies and incentives to strengthen the US semiconductor industry and lessen US reliance on non-US suppliers.

Also: From AI trainers to ethicists: AI may obsolete some jobs but generate new ones

The US CHIPS and Science Act, signed into law in August 2022, provides $10 billion over five years for a Tech Hubs program. The idea of Tech Hubs is to fund 31 "high-potential" regions across the US with pre-existing expertise in "emergent technology sectors."

Phase 1 of the Tech Hubs program was announced in October 2023, when the EDA (the US Economic Development Administration, part of the Commerce Department), selected 31 Tech Hubs Designees and 29 Tech Hubs Strategy Development Grants.

"The Tech Hubs Designees exemplify place-based economic development strategies at their best: combining federal resources with regional assets, expertise, and coalitions to implement transformational opportunities," Assistant Secretary of Commerce for Economic Development Alejandra Y. Castillo said in a statement.

Phase 1 attracted over 1,000 commitments, including over $4 billion in investment commitments. These commitments are partnership promises from the private sector (for investment, infrastructure, and technology expertise), from academia (for research partnerships and workforce training), from local, state, and federal government entities (for policy support and funding), and from economic development organizations that promote regional economic growth (for community engagement and coordination).

Also: What is a Chief AI Officer, and how do you become one?

In Phase 2, the Tech Hub designees proposed projects in their assigned fields of expertise. Today, the EDA announced that Phase 2 has been completed and $504 million in funding has been awarded to 12 of the Tech Hub designees.

"The Department of Commerce is laser focused on expanding economic opportunity to every corner of this country," Deputy Commerce Secretary Don Graves said in a statement. "The Tech Hubs program is a commitment to American economic prosperity and success. These 12 awardees embody the innovation and creativity that can be found nationwide, boosting US manufacturing and bolstering US global competitiveness."

Each of these hubs has its own focus. For example, the Headwaters Hub (in Montana) was awarded $41 million for work on smart photonic sensor systems, the IFAB Tech Hub (in Illinois) was awarded $51 million for work on precision fermentation and biomanufacturing, and the Nevada Tech Hub was awarded $21 million for work on lithium batteries and electric vehicle materials.

Also: Devices everywhere: What the rise in edge investment means for your career

In Ohio, the Sustainable Polymers Tech Hub was awarded $51 million to "tackle the severe climate and environmental impacts resulting from the use of fossil fuel-derived polymers (rubbers and plastics) through accelerating sustainable polymer manufacturing and commercialization in the United States."

In other words, they're trying to make plastic (which we all rely upon) less nasty and more sustainable.

Back in Silicon Valley, I remember going to parties where everyone was talking chips and computers. As a computer scientist, I really grooved on those discussions because they were all speaking my language.

Now, in Ohio, coffee shop conversations will revolve around creating a more environmentally safe anti-degradent and scaling up a liquid phase mixing process. The hot party topic will be boosting production of bio-based butadiene.

Other zones awarded funding are in Colorado, New Mexico, Indiana, New York, New Hampshire, South Carolina, Georgia, Florida, Oklahoma, and Wisconsin.

Also: Ready to upskill? Look to the edge (where it's not all about AI)

Assistant Secretary Castillo summed it all up: "We're excited to see this initial round of implementation funding supporting a surge of new jobs, new technologies, and new energy to bolster America's competitiveness."

With these 12 Tech Hubs funded, there will be new hot party topics all across the US. Don't laugh. It's those people-bonding experiences that drive innovation and connection, and help teams form for new and exciting projects that could lead to improved US competitiveness.

You can follow my day-to-day project updates on social media. Be sure to subscribe to my weekly update newsletter, and follow me on Twitter/X at @DavidGewirtz, on Facebook at Facebook.com/DavidGewirtz, on Instagram at Instagram.com/DavidGewirtz, and on YouTube at YouTube.com/DavidGewirtzTV.