Mayor Kirk Watson writes in support of Occam Foundry

Mayor Kirk Watson has issued a letter of support for Occam Foundry, the quantum technology campus planned for 16.5 acres in southeastern Travis County. The letter is dated September 10, 2026, and is reproduced in full below.

The Mayor ties the campus to the Texas Quantum Initiative, which the Legislature created in 2025 under HB 4751 and pointed at commercially relevant infrastructure: networks, hardware systems, and the real estate to house them. Occam Foundry, he writes, is that infrastructure. It puts a working quantum system, advanced packaging and test, and the companies commercializing quantum on one campus, so a design can move from idea to prototype to working system without leaving the state.

He makes the economic case as a statewide one. Energy and materials are among the industries with the most value to gain from quantum computing by 2035, and Texas leads the country in that industry. A campus in Austin that commercializes the technology keeps the suppliers, the spinouts, and the trained workforce in Texas, with Houston, Dallas, and San Antonio putting the work to use. Other states built their clusters around a federal lab. Texas, he writes, can build one around the industries it already owns.

The letter also welcomes the campus's plan to open its doors to Austin ISD and Del Valle ISD teachers and students, with classroom visits, teacher training, and a pipeline into the trades and technical roles the facility will need. Fifth graders in Del Valle, the Mayor writes, should be able to see the work being done a few miles from their school and picture themselves doing it.

The Mayor's office and the City's economic development staff will work with the campus on site readiness and permitting, and the Mayor commits to advocating for the state and federal partnerships the campus needs.