Biden administration picks 31 regional tech hubs to spur US innovation.

From 370 applications, the U.S. Commerce Department announced on Monday that it had selected 31 regional tech centers. These places are now eligible for $500 million in government financing to support innovation and growth in various industries.

According to Secretary of Commerce Gina Raimondo, the program aims to diversify the American economy away from traditional tech strongholds like Silicon Valley, Seattle, and Boston.

“Those tech ecosystems are concentrated in just a few places around the country,” Raimondo stated. They don’t accurately represent our nation’s potential. They don’t have a monopoly on brilliant concepts.

To encourage greater private sector investment in sectors like the manufacture of semiconductors, clean energy, and batteries for electric vehicles, President Joe Biden believes that the government should help support important sectors.

The regional technology initiative, according to Lael Brainard, National Economic Director for the White House, “makes smart public investments in critical technologies in every region of the country.”

This month, the Biden administration announced that seven “hydrogen hubs” in 16 states would split $7 billion to help the new business get off the ground.

The designated regional tech clusters are concentrated on fields like semiconductors, clean energy, essential minerals, biotechnology, artificial intelligence, and quantum computing. They are in states including Montana, Wisconsin, upstate New York, Vermont, Illinois, and Puerto Rico.

“People shouldn’t have to move to get a good job,” Raimondo added, pointing out that many centers are in small communities.

While an Oklahoma center aims to commercialize autonomous systems in industries like agriculture and pipeline inspections, Washington state and Idaho hubs will concentrate on creating new materials for more fuel-efficient next-generation airplanes. Personalized medicine is being developed as part of a Wisconsin effort.

No classification as a hub ensures federal money.

According to Raimondo, the government would give up to $75 million to each of the 31 IT clusters the following year.

As part of the historic “Chips and Science” law, which allocates $52 billion for American semiconductor manufacture and research to better compete with China, Congress granted $500 million for the initiative in August 2022.

This year, Biden requested $4 billion from Congress to support more local tech clusters. Congress has not yet approved a full-year budget for the current fiscal year.