The Pacific Northwest sees major pick-ups in energy, tech, quantum and more.
Washington, Oregon, Alaska and the Canadian province of British Columbia make up a portion of the North American continent rife with natural beauty, but also with energy, talent and natural resources, powering site selection decision-making all over the region. Growth is coming to the Pacific Northwest, accelerated by ever-shifting international trade relations, large investments in infrastructure and workforce improvement efforts. Like a steadily expanding metro area, growth also comes by way of defining the region within an even larger circle.
“Looking ahead to 2026, our region is preparing for a transformative year,” said Travis Keising, Pacific NorthWest Economic Region (PNWER) president and Saskatchewan legislative assembly member, in the annual report of the organization, whose purview includes the above jurisdictions plus Idaho, Montana, and the Canadian provinces of Alberta, Saskatchewan, and the Yukon and Northwest Territories. “The upcoming joint review of the Canada-United States-Mexico Agreement (CUSMA/USMCA) in July will shape the future of North American trade. PNWER is committed to ensuring the Pacific Northwest’s priorities and perspectives are well represented throughout the process. Let’s take this opportunity to reflect on this beneficial relationship and make our supply chains stronger, our industries more innovative and our economies more prosperous.”
Washington Wins
The Evergreen State has plenty to celebrate, between the Seattle Seahawks collecting a Super Bowl victory in February and major wins in economic and talent development. In a conversation with Seattle Office of Economic Development Interim Director Alicia Teel, she explains key factors driving the city’s success in retaining and cultivating workers and companies.
“We have world-class tech talent living in Seattle,” she says of a metro area that moved up from No. 12 last year to No. 8 in Site Selection’s recently published 2026 North American Tech Hub Index. “That is absolutely one of the strongest things that both attracts and retains tech companies here. … We have partnered with Ada Developers Academy, which trains up folks with a focus on underrepresented people in the tech sector, and the AI2 Incubator to launch the AI House, which is a first of its kind public-private partnership to cultivate our emergent cluster in AI industries.”
“Washington’s geographic diversity supports both dense urban tech centers and more cost-competitive industrial or rural locations, giving businesses flexibility as they scale.”
— Radi Simeonova, Managing Director, Washington State Department of Commerce Business Development
The Ada Developers Academy is headquartered in downtown Seattle, a short drive south from Pier 70 where AI House was launched last spring as a hub for AI industry brainstorming and collaboration and a startup launchpad. Several startups have offices at AI House already.
“Throughout the year, we have found that tech workers impacted by recent layoffs have been able to tap into the community, the connections, the capital at AI House, as well as the sister incubator that we have created in the green economy, clean energy space — the Seattle Climate Innovation Hub,” Teel says. The Seattle Climate Innovation Hub is a public-private partnership, working with the Seattle Office of Economic Development, the University of Washington’s CoMotion Labs Climate Tech Incubator, global climate community and hub 9Zero, and nonprofit funder and accelerator VertueLab to boost green tech and downtown Seattle revitalization.
Along with emerging tech talent and entrepreneurship come legacy companies continuing to expand in Washington.
“The state is home to globally recognized companies such as Microsoft, Amazon, Boeing and Starbucks, alongside a broad base of Fortune 500 employers that anchor deep supply chains and innovation ecosystems,” Radi Simeonova, managing director of business development at the Washington State Department of Commerce, tells Site Selection. “Companies benefit from proximity to Asia-Pacific markets, resilient logistics networks and a mix of established industry leaders and emerging innovators. Washington’s geographic diversity supports both dense urban tech centers and more cost-competitive industrial or rural locations, giving businesses flexibility as they scale. The state’s time zone also allows companies to engage with Asia and Europe within the same workday, supporting global operations, coordination and real-time collaboration.”
Seattle was the location of the first quantum computing manufacturing facilities in the country, opened by IonQ in early 2024. In October 2025, the Maryland-based company announced it was raising $2 billion through an equity offering to private equity firm Heights Capital Management. The raised funds will go toward facilitating IonQ’s global strategy and accelerating quantum commercialization.
This came after the company already sold $1 billion in shares to Heights Capital in July 2025; IonQ has also aggressively acquired or partnered with several tech companies, including semiconductor manufacturer SkyWater, quantum sensing company Vector Atomic, software and tech R&D firm Seed Innovations, Oxford Ionics, Lightsynq Technologies, Capella Space and quantum networking company Qubitekk.
“IonQ’s decision to expand operations in the Seattle area with one of the first dedicated quantum computing manufacturing facilities in the United States underscores Washington’s role as a hub for deep tech and advanced manufacturing,” says Simeonova. “The company’s growth reflects broader momentum in deep-tech sectors that require specialized talent, research partnerships and long-term investment.”
Conducting Semiconductor Business in Oregon
In April 2023, Oregon adopted legislation enhancing the state’s competitiveness in the semiconductor industry, earmarking $240 million in direct incentives for semiconductor companies in Oregon applying for Federal CHIPS Act resources. Business Oregon and the Governor’s Office developed the Oregon CHIPs Program, which between fiscal years 2023 and 2025 saw 11 contracts executed that allocated $195.3 million in funding and grants to eligible projects.
In the second Oregon CHIPS Report published in October 2025, eight of those companies were canvassed in detail. The eleven companies awarded Oregon CHIP funding overall include Microchip Technology Inc., Intel Corporation, HP, Analog Devices, Siltronic Corporation, Lam Research Corporation, Stratacache, ATI Specialty Alloys & Components, AGC Electronic America, Valliscor and Tokyo Ohka Kogyo America (TOKA). Five companies (Microchip Technology, Intel, HP, Analog Devices and the Provenance Chain Network) received federal dollars from the Federal CHIPS Act for Oregon projects.
Microchip has been awarded $72 million to modernize and triple production at the company’s manufacturing facility in Gresham. Intel received $1.86 billion to support semiconductor development on Intel 18A and future nodes at the company’s D1X facility in Hillsboro, one of the largest CHIPS Act investments made at any one location. HP was awarded $53 million to construct a pilot line, expanding production at its “lab to fab” facility in Corvallis. A total of $80 million was awarded to Analog Devices to increase capacity and improve sustainability at the company’s largest U.S. site in Beaverton. The Provenance Chain Network also was a recipient of a CHIPS Metrology Small Business Innovation Research Award, supporting the microelectronics supply chain industry.
Alaska Powers Up
The largest electric utility in Alaska is moving forward with hydroelectric development scoping plans in the south-central part of the state. Chugach Electric Association, electricity supplier to almost 92,000 members, started filing permits with the Alaska Department of Natural Resources in February 2026 to investigate prospective hydroelectric projects that would ease the utility’s dependence on natural gas in the next five to 15 years.
Three of the four sites to be evaluated for potential development (Caribou Creek, Boulder Creek and Godwin Creek) will use pumped-storage hydropower, a process which involves moving water up and down from two water reservoirs at different elevations, passing through a turbine; this system allows facilities to not only generate power, but also store it for later like a large battery. The fourth hydroelectric site is on Canyon Creek, which would be a run-of-river (also known as “diversion”) operation if chosen for development. This system has limited or no water storage and has a much lower environmental impact than typical hydroelectric plants as it doesn’t use reservoirs, instead redirecting river water through a canal and/or penstock, harnessing energy produced from the natural elevation drop and turbine generation before returning diverted water back to the river downstream. About 52 MW of expected capacity could be made available if all four projects come to fruition.
Chugach’s plans to develop the hydroelectric projects began a couple years ago, with 158 sites initially screened. The utility avoided areas where project activity could negatively impact the migration patterns of local freshwater fish populations. Chugach spoke with with regulatory agencies, Alaska Native tribes, landowners and non-governmental organizations to refine site selection criteria over six months before filing the preliminary permit applications and water right applications.
Chugach Electric Association also approved a 10-MW solar array project in October 2025, which will be located adjacent to its 312-MW gas plant in Beluga. The $26.4-million project is slated to be the largest solar array project in the state, outpacing the 8.5-MW solar array built by Renewable Independent Power Producers 30 miles south of downtown Anchorage in Houston, Alaska, in 2023.
Mining in British Columbia
In British Columbia, big plans are underway to maximize the province’s illustrious mining industry. The provincial government announced a land-use initiative last summer wherein it will partner with the First Nations governments of the Tahltan, Taku River Tlingit, Kaska Dena, Gitanyow and Nisga’a groups, in mining investment land development plans in British Columbia. British Columbia produces or can produce 19 of 34 critical minerals needed to support the country’s economy, infrastructure and national security; the Canadian province is also conveniently situated to leverage its western seaboard and associated ports to facilitate trade between Canada and Asian markets in the high-demand industry.
“We are taking steps to cement the northwest as a key economic driver for Canada, while also protecting the waters and lands we all love and working toward reconciliation” said British Columbia Minister of Mining and Critical Minerals Jagrup Brar when the initiative was launched. “I look forward to continuing our work with First Nations, industry and local communities to deliver this vision for the benefit of everyone in the northwest and across British Columbia.”
Seattle’s strategic coastal location is well-positioned for international trade.
Photo: Getty Images
In 2019, the Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples Act (DRIPA) was unanimously passed in British Columbia, the first Canadian jurisdiction enshrining the United Nations’ Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples (UNDRIP) into law. DRIPA directs the provincial government to consult and cooperate with Indigenous peoples under a legal, reconciliatory framework. When announcing the multibillion mining development plan in May 2025, the Office of British Columbia’s Premier David Eby emphasized that the strategy would include “consent-based agreements with First Nations to provide predictability on processes for resource development,” an “inclusive expedited process to protect important lands and watersheds in partnership with First Nations that balances with development” of planned mining investment in the province and “investments in the social well-being and physical infrastructure northern communities need to thrive alongside new economic growth.”
In April 2025, the Mining Association of British Columbia’s CEO Michael Goehring provided a map identifying 27 mining projects in the province that could spur the local critical minerals market, with the potential of generating C$90 billion (US$65 billion). Notably, copper is naturally abundant in British Columbia (about half of Canadian copper is produced in the province). The material is expected to grow in value and scarcity globally in the next decade as the resource is used in nearly all electrical projects and applications, construction, industrial machinery, transportation and consumer electronics.
Newmont, the world’s largest gold mining corporation, will reinvest in one of its assets located in the northwestern part of British Columbia; the Denver-based company announced in February 2026 that it would spend $3 billion expanding the Red Chris copper-gold mine into a sprawling, large-scale underground mass mining site, adding another decade of life to the block cave mining operation. Newmont also owns and operates the Brucejack gold-silver mine, located in the 500-kilometer-long, mineral-rich Golden Triangle area along with Red Chris mine.
