Silicon Hills

The Silicon Hills is a nickname for a group of technology companies in the Austin area of Texas in the United States. People have called Austin the Silicon Hills since the mid-1990s. The name is similar to Silicon Valley, but it refers to the hilly land on the west side of Austin.

Many important technology industries are found in the Silicon Hills. These include making enterprise software, semiconductors, doing research and development for big companies, biotechnology, video games, and many new small companies that are just starting.

Some of the big technology companies with offices in the Silicon Hills are Advanced Micro Devices, Amazon.com, Apple Inc., ARM Holdings, Cisco, eBay, Meta (Facebook), Alphabet (Google), IBM, Indeed, Intel, NXP Semiconductors, PayPal, Procore, Silicon Labs, Texas Instruments, Oracle Corporation, Visa, VMWare, and many others. Dell’s main office is in Round Rock, a town near Austin.

History

Austin's tech industry started during World War II with defense research at the University of Texas. The first tech company, Tracor, was started in 1962 by university researchers and later became a big, well-known company. In the 1960s, IBM chose Austin to build a factory for its Selectric typewriters. By the 1970s, other big companies like Motorola, Texas Instruments, and Westinghouse also opened factories there. The 1980s saw even more growth with new research groups and Dell starting in 1984, which later became a major computer company.

Venture capital, incubators and accelerators

Austin has been a top place for money used to start new businesses. In 2013, investors put in $621 million, with much of it going to companies making software and tiny parts for computers. Some of these investors are Austin Ventures, Central Texas Angels Network, Genesis UT, and Tritium Partners.

Austin Venture capital investment over time

The city has at least 15 places that help new businesses get started, such as Capital Factory, Austin Technology Incubator, DivInc, Founder's Institute, Tarmac, and the IC² Institute linked to the University of Texas at Austin. There are also programs to help new businesses grow quickly, like Sputnik ATX, Tech Stars, and Mass Challenge TX.

List of tech companies with a presence in the Austin area

Main article: List of companies based in Austin, Texas

Austin, Texas, is home to many big tech companies. Some of the well-known names include:

History

Venture capital, incubators and accelerators

List of tech companies with a presence in the Austin area

Images

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