Greater Austin Chamber of Commerce

Congratulations to Samsung Semiconductor for finalizing their award with the U.S. Department of Commerce CHIPS and Science Office! Today’s announcement of up to $4.7 billion in direct funding will help fuel Samsung’s investment of over $37 billion in our region to develop and manufacture leading-edge chips in Taylor. Central Texas has one of the most robust semiconductor manufacturing clusters in the country, and this announcement only solidifies our region as a national leader in advanced manufacturing. We look forward to our continued partnership with Samsung and the CHIPS office into 2025 and beyond! https://hubs.ly/Q030pjjN0

We’re excited to announce that Mark Ramseur, Managing Principal of Pape-Dawson Engineers, will lead the Austin Chamber as our 2025 board chair. Supporting him is Denise Davis, Partner at Davis Kaufman PLLC, who will serve as chair-elect in 2025 and take on the board chair role in 2026. Their terms officially begin on January 1, 2025. In addition, we are proud to welcome new board members who will join us in advancing Austin’s business community. These leaders will begin their terms on January 1, 2025, and continue through December 31, 2027: Travis Baker, Community Impact Cooper Drenner, Wildhorn Capital Luisa Gavino-Martinez, PNC Bank Ali Khataw, P.E., Encotech Engineering Consultants, Inc. Anna Panossian, Circuit of The Americas Marc A. Rodriguez, Offices of Marc A. Rodriguez Trey Salinas, 3 Point Partners Jessica Scanlon, Hot Dog Marketing, LLC Colleen Sundquist, Baylor Scott and White Health Fernando Treviño Jr., Accenture Richard “Rick” Turner, Tokyo Electron US (TEL) Curtis Williams, P.E., Jacobs You can read the full press release and see the list of our 2025 Executive Committee Members here:https://hubs.ly/Q030dQ280

Member Spotlight: 100% Chiropractic Austin Rosedale. Providing chiropractic care for people of all ages, they believe in overall natural wellness care and long-term chiropractic corrective care to prevent the bigger aches, pains, and sicknesses. Chiropractic care helps people improve their quality of life by reducing and even eliminating pain and improving range of motion. Book an appointment at https://hubs.ly/Q0305sdX0

Join us for the first edition of Tacos & Topics in 2025 on January 16th! With SXSW only 2 months away, there's a lot to dive into to help our community prepare for a packed programming schedule! At the event, we'll do a deep dive with Hugh Forrest into the 2025 SXSW Film & TV lineup (which will have been released a few days earlier). At the event, you'll learn about all the amazing screenings that will happen in March. We'll also review recent updates to the SXSW 2025 online schedule, and, as always, there's great networking and a chance to get all your SXSW questions answered by staffers.

Thank you to our phenomenal Board Chair Rudy Garza, who treated the entire Chamber team to lunch at Truluck's today! We are so grateful for Rudy, and everything he's accomplished in the past year as our Board Chair. More than anything, he truly cares about every staff member on our team and goes out of his way to make us all feel appreciated. Thank you for all you do, Rudy!

Member Spotlight: Wise - An international money transfer company with an office and big presence here in Austin! Using Wise is one of the easiest ways to pay and get paid globally - you can move money where it matters: from paying your mortgage in Euros to sending Rupees overseas. You can learn more about Wise at https://hubs.ly/Q02_-STl0

Congratulations to our Executive Committee Member Denise Davis, who was just honored by the Austin Bar Association with their Distinguished Lawyer Award! 🎉 She will be honored at their annual gala in January. https://lnkd.in/gDguM-C7

We're now registering Austin businesses to host interns for our 2025 Summer High School Internship Program with Austin Independent School District and Austin Ed Fund - check out this video highlighting our intern Joaquin's experience interning at GarzaEMC. Early exposure to career opportunities is essential for students, and by hosting an intern, you are investing in Austin's future workforce. Now's your chance to make a difference! For more information, email our Education and Workforce Policy manager, Eric Hale at ehale@austinchamber.com.

That's a wrap on our final event of the year: Legislative Preview! Thanks to our bipartisan group- Glenn Hegar, Donna Howard, and Caroline Harris Davila, who gave us a great look at the policy issues that will impact Central Texas next year. We're so grateful for our program sponsor, Austin Transit Partnership. Thank you to everyone who supported Austin Chamber at our events this year - we are so excited for what's ahead in 2025!

We applaud the Austin City Council’s unanimous adoption of Austin Energy’s Resource, Generation, and Climate Protection Plan to 2035, a critical framework that ensures the continued delivery of reliable, affordable, and environmentally sustainable power to our community. This plan reflects the community’s core values, focusing on energy equity, sustainability, and reliability while driving progress toward the goal of 100% carbon-free energy by 2035. It outlines key strategies including the phasing out of coal, expanding renewable energy resources, enhancing energy efficiency programs, and leveraging local solutions like utility-scale batteries to strengthen grid reliability. The Austin Chamber stands in strong support of these efforts, which will provide a flexible and forward-thinking path to a cleaner energy future while ensuring the continued economic vitality and resilience of our city. Thank you to our board and members for their support in this effort!