CenterState CEO President Rob Simpson Talks Tech Hubs on Technical.ly's Culture Builder Live

CenterState CEO President Rob Simpson recently joined Technical.ly CEO Chris Wink on the Culture Builder Live series to talk about the NY SMART I-Corridor's award through the federal Tech Hubs program. During their conversation, they discussed the region's goals in building the next global semiconductor industry hub and the investment's significance to national priorities: 

Simpson’s CenterState CEO bid, dubbed NY SMART I-Corridor Tech Hub and awarded $40 million, is ambitious in its own right. It’s the only Tech Hubs bid that won implementation for a semiconductor manufacturing, perhaps the most contested bit of technology infrastructure in the world. 

Once an American-made innovation, advanced semiconductor manufacturing went abroad, like quantum computing, since concentrating in geographies with fraught political dynamics. 

Ninety percent of all advanced semiconductor manufacturing happens on the island of Taiwan, Simpson said, which is just 68 miles off the shore of China – whose leaders have a tense relationship with American elected officials. 

“There is a significant economic and national security imperative to bring this industry back to the United States,” Simpson told me. “This is our chance to reclaim some of our hard-earned invention heritage and put Americans back to work.”