Capital Region Gives Silicon Valley a Run for Its Money in National Rankings

Nov. 10, 2016

Media Contact
James Schlett
Director of Research and Communications
518-465-8975 X221
jamess@ceg.org

NY Loves Nanotech partners go to major semiconductor event

ALBANY, N.Y. – The Capital Region’s technology sector is increasingly giving Silicon Valley a run for its money in national rankings. On top of U.S. News and World Reports’ recent ranking of  Albany as the No. 3 “Best Place to Find a Job in Technology” – right behind San Francisco and San Jose, Calif.  – a Center for Economic Growth (CEG) analysis of U.S. Patent and Trademark Office (PTO) data found the Capital Region is trailing only the San Jose area in patent generation for semiconductor device manufacturing processes, as measured by the residence of first-named inventors.

The region’s ranking advancements come as partners from the NY Loves Nanotech consortium prepare to attend the semiconductor industry’s most exclusive – and best attended – event of the year in San Jose today. Representing the Capital Region at the annual awards dinner of the Semiconductor Industry Association (SIA) will be people from CEG, Rensselaer County Economic Development and Planning, Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, Zone 5, and GlobalFoundries. They will be joined by other upstate organizations, including Mohawk Valley EDGE, Genesee County Economic Development Center, Greater Rochester Enterprise & Invest Buffalo Niagara.

This year will mark the 15^th year NY Loves Nanotech has sponsored the annual SIA awards dinner, which is regularly attended by more than 400 business and industry executives. Since the start of NY Loves Nanotech’s sponsorship of this event, the Capital Region’s semiconductor landscape has changed significantly through the influence of manufacturers such as GlobalFoundries in Malta and GE Global Research in Niskayuna and the academic research engines at the SUNY Polytechnic Institute in Albany and RPI in Troy.

Over the last 15 years, the number of semiconductor device manufacturing process patents whose first-named inventors are from the Albany-Troy-Schenectady metropolitan statistical area (MSA) has increased by 2,188 percent, from 8 in 2001 to 183 in 2015. Consequently, the ranking of the Albany-Troy-Schenectady MSA for this class of technology patent has shot from the No. 27 seat to No. 2, right behind the San Jose-Sunnyvale-Santa Clara MSA. Solidifying the Albany area’s standing as a global leader in technological innovation, it has pulled ahead of several much larger tech metro powerhouses, such as New York City, San Francisco, Dallas and Portland, Wash.

“These rankings illustrate how the Capital Region is no longer just a player in the semiconductor industry – we’re a leader,” said CEG President and CEO Andrew S. Kennedy. “This is the result of years of planning, of forging partnerships and of unwavering investment in our academic institutions from all levels of government and from businesses of all sizes. In an industry where technological advancement moves at an exponential pace, the public-private synergies centered around institutions such as RPI and SUNY Poly are helping semiconductor companies across the country and beyond stay ahead of the R&D curve and in front of the pack.” 

No other metro in the Top 10 has experienced as much growth in terms of semiconductor device manufacturing process patents with local first-named inventors or ranking as the Capital Region. While the order of investors listed on a patent does not influence the legal standing of one person over the other, companies customarily list first the person who made the most significant contribution to the patented technology.  

Examples of semiconductor device manufacturing process patents with local first-named inventors and issued in 2015 include:

SIA today will bestow its highest honor, the Robert N. Noyce Award, to Martin van den Brink, president and chief technology officer at ASML Holding and renowned pioneer in semiconductor manufacturing technology. NY Loves Nanotech, a longtime sponsor of the award dinner and an initiative of CEG, is a consortium of like-minded organizations, including economic development groups, academic institutions and technology equipment and service suppliers, who have joined forces to promote New York State and all it has to offer to high-tech industries. NY Loves Nanotech is sponsored by National Grid.

Another recent prominent ranking for the Capital Region’s technology sector was SUNY Poly’s No. 18 seat in U.S. News & World Reports’ Best Colleges: Regional Universities North Rankings. Forbes also named Albany the nation’s No. 64 Best Place for Business and Careers and WalletHub named Saratoga Springs the nation’s No. 11 Best Small City.

About CEG

The Center for Economic Growth (CEG) is the regional economic development organization for the greater Capital Region and New York’s Tech Valley with over 300 members in business, government, education, and the not-for-profit sectors. CEG is a New York Empire State Development Division of Science, Technology and Innovation-designated Regional Technology Development Center and an affiliate of the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST)/ Manufacturing Extension Partnership (MEP).

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