Building a future

Article originally posted on Phoenix Business Journal on August 3, 2026

Piece by piece, Arizona has completely rebuilt its economy in the past seven years, fueled by a decision to go all in on semiconductors

As the Arizona Commerce Authority celebrates its 15-year anniversary, the state’s economic transformation “has really been nothing short of extraordinary,” according to the Sandra Watson, CEO of the ACA.

Driven largely by semiconductor firms going all in on the state, the past 12 months were the most successful for economic development in Arizona’s history.

That’s according to the latest fiscal year annual report from the ACA, which shows that companies announced plans to invest over $109 billion in new projects and other economic development activity in the state that resulted in some 26,225 projected new jobs created from July 2025 through June of this year.

The figures are record-setting. In the previous fiscal year, capital investment was around $31 billion, resulting in about 24,000 projected new jobs.

And, if the ACA’s pipeline of potential new business is any indication, the economic development hits could keep coming.

“We continue to see strong momentum across advanced industries,” Alyssa Tufts, ACA’s vice president of public relations, said. “The ACA currently has 483 active projects in our pipeline. These projects represent 122,323 projected new jobs and more than $104 billion in total investment.

The manufacturing sector accounts for 79% of all potential projects in the ACA’s pipeline, as well as 82% of jobs and 72% of capital investment.

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