Austin Mayor Kirk Watson and The University of Texas at Austin's TACC Back Occam Foundry Quantum Technology Campus

Mayor Watson and UT Austin's TACC back the Austin quantum technology campus as Occam Foundry supports K-12 quantum education and workforce programs

AUSTIN, TX, UNITED STATES, September 28, 2026 /EINPresswire.com/ -- Occam Foundry, a commercialization campus for quantum technology planned for 16.5 acres in southeastern Travis County, announces a letter of support from Austin Mayor Kirk Watson and a signed memorandum of understanding with The University of Texas at Austin, acting through the Texas Advanced Computing Center (TACC).

In a letter dated September 10, Mayor Watson welcomes Occam Foundry's plan to open the campus to Austin-area public school teachers and students, with classroom visits, teacher training and a pipeline into the trades and technical roles the facility needs. He ties the campus to the Texas Quantum Initiative, which the Legislature created in 2025 under HB 4751. His office and the City's economic development staff are working with Occam Foundry on site readiness and permitting.

"Austin wants this project and Texas needs it," said Mayor Watson. "Other states built their clusters around a federal lab. Texas can build one around the industries it already owns, and give the Texas Quantum Initiative a place to deliver on its purpose."

Under the memorandum of understanding, The University of Texas at Austin, through TACC, supports the development of the campus in Austin, and 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. They also plan to pursue joint applications for federal, state and philanthropic funding and 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.

"We are excited to partner with Occam Foundry," said Dan Stanzione, Associate Vice President for Research, The University of Texas at Austin and Executive Director of TACC. "At TACC, our longstanding commitment is to prepare not only the workforce for advanced computing today, but the advanced computing of the future, where Quantum technologies will play a much larger role. This is a fantastic opportunity to work together to do just that."

The timeline is short. In June, two federal executive orders set a 2028 target for a scientific-scale quantum computer and 2030 and 2031 deadlines for moving federal systems to post-quantum cryptography. Texas hosts none of the research centers created under the National Quantum Initiative Act, while Illinois, Maryland and Colorado are turning theirs into companies and trained workers. A fifth grader in Austin today graduates from high school in 2034, as the quantum systems, sensors and secure networks being built now reach the workforce that will run them.

"There is no time to wait," said Matt Cimaglia, Managing Member of Texas Quantum Partners, the developer of Occam Foundry. "The countries that lead in quantum technology in the 2030s are training their students for it today, and the United States has to do the same. Texas has the industries that will put quantum technology to work. Supporting TACC's education and workforce programs, and opening our campus to Austin-area students and teachers, means the people who run it can grow up here."

Occam Foundry is one node in a national network of quantum technology hubs taking shape across the country. New York, Maryland, Florida, Tennessee, New Mexico and Arizona each contribute their own research and industry strengths. Silicon Valley concentrated computing in a single region in the 1970s and 1980s. Quantum technology is developing across many regions at once, and a distributed network puts computing, sensing and secure networking capability in several states, which strengthens both the economy and national security. Occam Foundry gives Texas its node, built around the state's energy, semiconductor and defense industries and the research base at UT Austin.

About Occam Foundry

Occam Foundry is a commercialization campus for quantum technology in Austin, Texas, where companies build, test and bring quantum products to market. Texas Quantum Partners develops the campus in partnership with Samara Real Property. The campus combines a convening building for classes, lectures and conferences; a fabrication facility for materials, process and prototyping work; a networking and sensing laboratory; and a quantum hub housing a working quantum system alongside high-performance computing and GPU resources. Learn more at OccamFoundry.com.

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