Investor Watch: August 10, 2026

Ohio-based STERIS is investing $600 million in the Tarheel State. Missouri is part of GM’s plans to invest $9 billion across its U.S. manufacturing portfolio and $7 billion into new R&D activity in 2026. SpaceX will invest $16.8 billion into a new vertically integrated semiconductor fabrication plant it’s calling a Terafab.

WORKFORCE HOUSING

The shortage seems universal, but there is no shortage of development and redevelopment projects intended to address the issue. The State of the Nation’s Housing report from the Harvard Joint Center for Housing Studies and new federal legislation set the stage for increased coverage from Site Selection, including our workforce housing online extra: “Big Issues Require Big Solutions.”

NEWS DIGEST

Amazon expands in the UK; Sensodyne-maker Haleon invests in India. Vietnam wins a $1.5 billion semiconductor facility. EuroChem nears completion on a plant in Kazakhstan. Romania gets the world’s first quantum AI data center. Spain’s Galicia sees an automotive boost.

ADVERTISEMENT

Photo courtesy of Purdue University

In the wake of former Purdue president Mung Chiang’s decision to leave for the same post at Northwestern University, Purdue’s Board of Trustees in May named former university president and former two-term governor of Indiana Mitch Daniels as interim president. Daniels, who already holds the titles of Purdue president emeritus and chair of the board of the Purdue Research Foundation, served for 10 years as Purdue’s president from 2013 to 2022. He will serve until a new president is identified and takes office.

Site Selection interviewed Professor Chiang for the first time in September 2023 for a sidebar in our Upper Midwest report called “ ‘Cradle of Astronauts’ Reaches for the Stars, where he gave credit to Daniels for the school’s robust attitude toward entrepreneurs. Coverage of Daniels, a former president of operations at Eli Lilly and Company whose name now adorns the university’s business school, has included:

• Our first conversation 20 years ago, “Honda’s Sure Thing,” about how he helped the state attract Honda to southeastern Indiana
• “The Box That Must Be Checked,” our March 2012 coverage of Daniels’ successful push to make Indiana the 23rd right-to-work state
• A September 2012 Site Selection Investment Profile called “How to Fix a State” published as he transitioned from governor to president of Purdue the first time around.

“President Chiang has led Purdue forward in a host of important ways, and it’s essential that the momentum he has generated be maintained,” Daniels said on his appointment. “If the board believes that recalling me to active duty temporarily can help in this respect, no one as devoted to this institution as I am could say anything but yes.”

ADVERTISEMENT

Photo by Fahroni: Getty Images

Among the books landing on Site Selection’s desk from university and business publishers is Harvard Business Review’s “Clean Winners: Sustainability Strategy That Puts Customers First,” by Goutam Challagalla and Frédéric Dalsace, professors at Switzerland’s IMD. “Despite massive investments, sustainable business still isn’t very profitable for most companies,” the publisher states. “The authors flip conventional sustainability strategy on its head: Instead of companies asking ‘How can we make our offerings more sustainable?’ they should be asking, ‘How can we use sustainability as a catalyst to improve the performance of our products, make them more affordable, or both?’ “

In a March 2026 article for IMD concurrent with the book’s release, “Sustainability 2.0,” co-authors Challagalla and Dalsace describe how “the drive toward an eco-friendly economy is not an ideology, but an innovation and business design challenge.”

See Site Selection’s July 2026 Sustainability Rankings for insights into places with a strong sustainability profile.

This photo shows an 1888 map depicting the original presence of Fort Douglas overlooking Salt Lake City.
Photo courtesy of University of Utah

On Saturday, leaders from the military, Utah state government, the federal government and higher education celebrated the historic relocation of military units and personnel to a new $127 million, 227,000-sq.-ft. headquarters for the Army Reserve at Camp Williams in Utah, while also marking the closure of Fort Douglas and the final transfer of 1,500 acres of federal land to the University of Utah for teaching, research and healthcare spaces.

The fort was originally built more than 160 years ago on 2 square miles of Wasatch Mountain foothills “to allow the federal government to keep an eye on pioneer settlers’ activities in downtown Salt Lake City,” said a press release from the university and the U.S. Army Reserve. Translation: Monitor the Mormons.

“The complex transfer required action from both the Utah State Legislature and the Utah Governor’s Office, as well as Congress,” the release explained. “Using state funding, the U constructed a $127 million state-of-the-art U.S. Army Reserve Center for the Army Reserve at Camp Williams, clearing the way for the military to vacate the remaining acres it occupies just east of the university campus.”

The release explained that the fort at one time stretched over 10,500 acres along the eastern bench of Salt Lake City. “Prior to the most recent transfer, a total of 1,534 acres had been transferred to the university over the past 126 years,” including parcels that became athletic facilities, student housing (1991), teaching and research buildings (1898), the Natural History Museum of Utah (1968) and the university’s research park (also 1968). “After the last large land transfer, in 1991, the university and its Research Park surrounded the remaining 50 acres of military property,” said the release.

“As we accept stewardship of this historic place,” said University of Utah President Taylor Randall, “we do so with a commitment to honor its past while creating new opportunities for future generations through education, discovery, healthcare and innovation.”