Arizona's economy to be boosted yet again by tech investments
PHOENIX - The Arizona economy has gone gangbusters in the new year.
Between businesses relocating and billions of dollars in investments, economic leaders say Arizona has a ton of momentum in 2025.
FOX 10's Steve Nielsen has more on what's headed to our state and what else could be on the horizon.
On Jan. 7, President-elect Donald Trump said Arizona is included in a massive foreign investment in the tech sector.
"At least $20 billion over a very short period of time," he said.
Trump announced that Dubai-based company, DAMAC, will spend $20 billion in eight states building data centers. That includes Arizona.
"Even more than that if the opportunity in the market allows us," said Hussain Sajwani of DAMAC.
Ten to 15 years ago, these were not the kind of announcements Arizona was celebrating.
Patrick Ptak at the Arizona Commerce Authority said the tech ecosystem here is growing.
The proof? ASU was selected recently for the "co-located NSTC Prototyping and NAPMP Advanced Packaging Piloting Facility."
ASU says it means hundreds of jobs and billions of dollars in investment.
"This is a way to bring more high-paying jobs for all Arizonans," ASU's Sally Morton said.
The bipartisan CHIPS Act used billions of federal dollars to lure semiconductor chip making to the U.S.
It's working for Arizona with massive investments by Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company (TSMC) in north Phoenix and Intel in Chandler, which produce the chips that make electronics run.
This ASU facility will allow for development and prototypes for the packaging of putting these chips together to make the products work.
"It's about how you do that. What materials you use, can you use materials that allow the chips not to get as hot and so on. You want to do this in a smart way," Morton explained.
Hidden in plain sight in these announcements is the reason why, which Cognite's CEO spells out.
"The No. 1 factor that attracted us to Arizona and to base our headquarters in Arizona, in Tempe, is really the talent," Girish Rishi of Cognite said.
Oslo, Norway artifical intelligence software company Cognite just announced plans to relocate their HQ to Tempe, bringing 150 jobs.
"There is a momentum behind Arizona. I believe Tempe will be tomorrow's type A. Semiconductor, autonomous vehicles, software. Cognite is an AI company coming to Arizona. I believe it's a big punch up for the state, so it excites me," Rishi said.
We don't know yet how much money or how many data centers will be built in Trump's $20 billion announcement.
And, this isn't it for Arizona's tech boom.
Seven days in to the new year, and the Commerce Authority says they have other investments already in the pipeline they aren't quite ready to announce yet.