Department of Commerce Awards $504 Million for Twelve Regional Tech and Innovation Hubs

WASHINGTON — Secretary of Commerce Gina Raimondo and the Economic Development Administration (EDA) announced on Monday the distribution of $504 million in Phase 2 implementation grants authorized under the CHIPS and Science Act to scale twelve designated Regional Technology and Innovation Hubs (Tech Hubs) across fourteen states.

The federal capital awards—ranging from $40 million to $51 million per hub—finance specialized prototyping facilities, technology commercialization accelerators, and workforce apprenticeship programs in critical technology sectors including artificial intelligence hardware, quantum computing, personalized biomanufacturing, and clean energy storage.

Democratizing American Innovation Beyond Coastal Silicon Hubs For decades, over 80 percent of venture capital and high-tech growth was concentrated in just five coastal metropolitan areas, leaving talent and industrial manufacturing capacity in the American heartland underutilized.

"America's leadership in the technologies of the 21st century cannot be built in only a few coastal zip codes—it must be powered by the ingenuity and hard work of communities across our entire country," Commerce Secretary Gina Raimondo said in Washington. "These $504 million investments will turn twelve regions across the heartland into global technology powerhouses, creating hundreds of thousands of good-paying manufacturing and engineering jobs, supercharging local economies, and securing America's economic and national security."

Selected Regional Tech Hubs Funded Funded regional consortia include:

• Elevate Quantum (Colorado/New Mexico/Wyoming): $51 million for cryogenic testing laboratories and quantum hardware fabrication.
• ReGen Valley Tech Hub (New Hampshire): $44 million for commercial tissue biofabrication cleanrooms.
• Heartland Robotics Cluster (Nebraska): $40 million for agricultural automation and robotic harvesting testbeds.
• Sustainable Polymers Tech Hub (Ohio): $45 million to commercialize bio-based recyclable industrial polymers in Akron.
• Eight additional hubs in Illinois, Indiana, Florida, Montana, Nevada, New York, Oklahoma, and Wisconsin receiving between $40 million and $48 million.

University chancellors, manufacturing CEOs, and building trades labor leaders praised the federal implementation grants, highlighting that regional tech hubs bridge academic laboratory discoveries with commercial factory floors.