Austin backs quantum campus with UT partnership and K-12 plan

Austin Mayor Kirk Watson and UT Austin’s Texas Advanced Computing Center are backing Occam Foundry, a planned quantum technology campus in southeast Travis County, with support aimed at education, workforce training and site readiness. The move ties local school and university programs to Texas’ push to build a quantum industry before federal deadlines accelerate demand.

Why it matters: - Occam Foundry is positioning Austin for a larger role in the quantum economy, with the campus intended to help Texas build talent, infrastructure and company formation around the technology. - The project links quantum commercialization to K-12 outreach and workforce pipelines, which could shape who enters the field and how quickly Texas can staff it. - The campus is being framed as part of a broader national race to build quantum computing, sensing and secure networking capacity.

What happened: - Austin Mayor Kirk Watson issued a letter of support dated September 10 for Occam Foundry’s planned quantum technology campus in southeastern Travis County. - The University of Texas at Austin, acting through the Texas Advanced Computing Center, signed a memorandum of understanding with Occam Foundry. - The campus is planned for 16.5 acres in southeastern Travis County. - Watson said Austin-area public school teachers and students would be welcomed for classroom visits, teacher training and exposure to trades and technical roles tied to the facility. - Watson linked the project to the Texas Quantum Initiative, created by the Legislature in 2025 under HB 4751. - The mayor’s office and the city’s economic development staff are working with Occam Foundry on site readiness and permitting.

The details: - Under the agreement, UT Austin through TACC supports development of the campus in Austin, while Occam Foundry supports TACC’s quantum education and workforce programs. - The two organizations plan to explore joint education and workforce programming, including K-12 quantum education and professional development for teachers. - The partnership also includes plans to pursue joint applications for federal, state and philanthropic funding. - The organizations also plan to make introductions on each other’s behalf. - TACC’s introductions include other UT Austin units such as the Texas Quantum Initiative and the Cockrell School of Engineering. - Dan Stanzione, associate vice president for research at UT Austin and executive director of TACC, said the partnership is meant to prepare the workforce for advanced computing today and for quantum technologies in the future. - Matt Cimaglia, managing member of Texas Quantum Partners and developer of Occam Foundry, said Texas needs to train students now for the quantum jobs of the 2030s. - Texas Quantum Partners is developing Occam Foundry in partnership with Samara Real Property. - The campus is designed to include a convening building for classes, lectures and conferences. - The campus also includes a fabrication facility for materials, process and prototyping work. - Additional planned facilities include a networking and sensing laboratory. - The quantum hub will house a working quantum system alongside high-performance computing and GPU resources. - The company says the campus will be a place where companies build, test and bring quantum products to market.

Between the lines: - Texas does not host any of the research centers created under the National Quantum Initiative Act, even as states such as Illinois, Maryland and Colorado are turning those centers into companies and trained workers. - Federal executive orders issued in June set a 2028 target for a scientific-scale quantum computer and 2030 and 2031 deadlines for moving federal systems to post-quantum cryptography. - The project is being pitched as a way to give Texas a homegrown quantum cluster rather than relying on a federal lab model. - The broader strategy is to spread quantum capability across multiple regions instead of concentrating it in one place, which supporters argue strengthens both the economy and national security. - Occam Foundry is being presented as Texas’ node in that distributed national network, anchored by the state’s energy, semiconductor and defense industries and UT Austin’s research base.

What’s next: - Occam Foundry and UT Austin through TACC will continue exploring joint programming, funding applications and institutional partnerships. - Austin city staff will keep working with the project on permitting and site readiness. - The campus will continue building toward opening as a commercialization site for quantum companies, education programs and workforce development. - The project’s education pipeline is expected to expand as it reaches Austin-area students and teachers before the expected 2030s workforce demand.

The bottom line: - Austin is trying to turn quantum technology from a distant research goal into a local economic and education pipeline, with City Hall and UT Austin now aligned behind the effort.