Highlights
- Arizona landed the NNME Southwest regional node, backed by up to $20 million in NSF funding over five years.
- The hub, run by the SEMI Foundation and Arizona Commerce Authority, covers Arizona, Southern California, Colorado, New Mexico, and Utah.
- More than 45 semiconductor companies, including Intel, and hundreds of schools will share distributed funding for workforce programs.
- Industry officials project a shortfall of roughly 127,000 to 157,000 semiconductor workers in the U.S. by 2030.
The U.S. National Science Foundation has designated Arizona as the Southwest regional node of the National Network for Microelectronics Education, committing $5 million in the first year and up to $20 million over five years to build a pipeline of chip-industry workers across five states, according to KTAR.
The SEMI Foundation will serve as hub operator alongside the Arizona Commerce Authority. The Southwest node is one of four regional hubs launched simultaneously; the others are anchored by Boise State University (Pacific Intermountain), NY CREATES (Northeast), and the University of Texas at Austin (South), according to a press release distributed via PR Newswire. Across all four nodes, the network activates more than 325 performer organizations.
The Southwest hub will serve Arizona, Southern California, Colorado, New Mexico, and Utah. Funding flows to more than 45 partner semiconductor companies, including Intel, as well as K-12 schools, colleges and universities, and career and technical education programs. Kolu Wilson, chief workforce officer at the Arizona Commerce Authority, said 33% of the program's partners are education organizations.
Why does the 2030 deadline matter?
SHARI Liss, vice president of Global Workforce Development and Initiatives at SEMI, said the U.S. faces a shortfall of approximately 150,000 semiconductor and microelectronics workers by 2030. The SEMI Foundation's own materials put the range at 127,000 to 157,000. The hub is structured to feed workers into the industry at every credential level, from high school completers to PhD graduates.
Wilson said the hub's value to education partners is access to shared curriculum and employer connections without having to build programs from scratch. "They are now able to leverage all of the tools and the resources and the curriculum by other partners that are within our regional node. They don't have to start from scratch,
Sources
Every factual claim in this article traces to one of the sources below. See how we work for the editorial process.
- ktar.com retrieved 27/05/2026 22:06
- PR Newswire retrieved 27/05/2026 22:06
Authored by The Scottsdale Signal. Drafted by AI from primary-source material under our beat-specific editorial guides; reviewed by humans before publish under our five-gate process. Sources retrieved at 27/05/2026 22:06. Every claim traces to a source.
