Recapping the Future of Industry report series
Published: 09/24/2025
GPEC evaluated eight key industries that will affect the future of Greater Phoenix’s marketplace
What does the future hold for industries in Greater Phoenix? How can regional leaders build upon today’s strengths and invest in the proper infrastructure to promote opportunities within these ecosystems?
Those are questions the Greater Phoenix Economic Council (GPEC) set out to answer in its Future of Industry report series, a 12-month initiative set to research and inform the business community about eight strategic industries.
To build the reports, GPEC hosted eight roundtables with 110 individuals from 100 different organizations representing the following industries: aerospace & defense, finance, software, global manufacturing, climate technology, semiconductors, startups & entrepreneurship, and healthcare innovation & the biosciences. Using insights from these experts, GPEC crafted reports of approximately five pages each overviewing where the region stands and strategies to grow.
These eight reports were published adjacent to a panel event for each, which welcomed a total of 1,082 attendees to hear from 32 local experts about these subjects.
Below is a quick recap of each, accompanied by the report and a full event recap.
Aerospace and defense
The aerospace and defense industry is a fixture of Greater Phoenix, making up nearly 4% of the GDP, employing 66,000 people — a 12% increase since 2018 — and receiving billions of dollars from the Department of Defense equating to $2,336 per capita. To continue advancing from the current elevated position, it will be important to continue identifying and developing emerging technology sectors like space technology, FutureG and eVTOL, while continuing to advance the Arizona Space Commission.
Full report here | Blog recap here.
Finance
With 94,000 employees, the Greater Phoenix finance industry ranks sixth in the nation for finance jobs and is elevated by seven firms that each employ more than 2,000 people, including Wells Fargo, Bank of America and JPMorganChase. To continue this trend, it will be paramount to evaluate the office market including opportunities to renovate and remodel existing inventory into Class-A space.
This, along with adoption of artificial intelligence in Greater Phoenix as financial firms increase spending on AI, will help contribute to the continuation of the strong ecosystem.
Full report here | Blog recap here
Software
The software industry is on the rise in Greater Phoenix, with job growth of 18% over the last five years and a startup ecosystem that has received more than $1 billion in funding in each of the last seven years. Continued growth of this fiercely competitive industry will depend on the success of enhanced attraction and retention of technical talent and the continued cultivation of the capital ecosystem.
Consequently, software-dependent industries like AI, cybersecurity, edtech, fintech and digital health will mutually benefit.
Full report here | Blog recap here
Global manufacturing
Greater Phoenix is positioned to shape Industry 4.0, centered around advanced automation, AI and data analytics. Employment has grown 3.5 times faster in the region than the nation as a whole over the last decade, aligning with the modernization of economic tools in Arizona, the infusion of $200 billion in semiconductor investment into Greater Phoenix, and federal activity that has strengthened the industry and its supply chain.
Moving forward, the region can accelerate momentum by increasing investment in infrastructure including highways, rail connections and cargo capacities out of airports to streamline trade, as well as drive additional partnerships between educational institutions and industry leaders to develop specialized programs.
Full report here | Blog recap here
Climate Technology
Forward-thinking policies in Arizona and federal support for electric vehicle usage has helped create more than 83,000 clean energy jobs and attract more than $800 million in capital investment from 2020-24 in the industry. This is backed by utilities that exceed state requirements for renewable and clean energy usage on an annual basis.
To maintain grid reliability as population and industrial demand grows, Greater Phoenix can leverage opportunities to build upon its battery landscape, strengthen the capital ecosystem and talent development programs, and further support research and development while implementing circular economy initiatives such as a direct air capture hub led by CarbonCapture and Arizona State University (ASU), the Resource Innovation Campus in Phoenix, and the Circular Plastics Microfactory driven by ASU, the City of Phoenix, Goodwill of Central and Northern Arizona, and Hustle PHX.
Full report here | Blog recap here
Semiconductors
Greater Phoenix’s end-to-end semiconductor value chain has garnered the most investment of any metro in the nation since 2020. This stems across the supply chain, including chipmakers like TSMC and Intel, equipment manufacturers like Tokyo Electron, logistics of DSV and chemical manufacturing like Chang Chun, plus advanced packaging of Amkor. This complete ecosystem can enable opportunities in emerging fields like AI and photonics.
For the local industry to reach its potential, the state must multiply this recent run of success in cultivating innovation assets through partnerships, workforce development and talent attraction, and intellectual property, as well as further investment in energy infrastructure and water.
Full report here | Blog recap here
Startups and Entrepreneurship
Entrepreneurship and startup funding in Greater Phoenix have been rising at impressive rates in recent years, building off the growth of the advanced manufacturing and software sectors and reinforced by more than 36,000 STEM graduates from public universities across Arizona. The region has eclipsed $1 billion in VC funding each year since 2018 — a figure it had never reached prior — and saw a 146% increase in investments from 2014-24. However, there has been less momentum in the early stages of venture capital raises.
To maximize the industry’s potential and bridge the gap between its assets and the perception of Greater Phoenix, leaders must link capital, talent, infrastructure, policy and storytelling into a cohesive unit while advocating for strategic capital infusions, physical clusterings around regional strengths, and facilitating proving grounds for emerging technologies.
Full report here | Blog recap here
Future of Healthcare Innovation and the Biosciences
As Greater Phoenix has emerged as a leader in healthcare, medtech innovation and bioscience growth has arisen adjacently. The region has seen nearly 25% employment growth in healthcare innovation since 2019 and $6 billion in investment into new regional hospitals, and has experienced bioscience-related occupation growth at double the national pace over the last decade. Arizona has potential to grow in the cell and gene therapies space, with infrastructure, proximity to major population centers, and an existing field of over 2,100 bioscience-related distribution firms and more than 13,000 relevant employees.
To continue this momentum in medtech, biomanufacturing and the biosciences and build off the broader manufacturing boom, Greater Phoenix must increase its turnkey wet lab space, develop early-stage connective programming, and adapt to the cuts in federal spending to the National Institutes of Health and other healthcare programs.