Santa Barbara and Goleta are emerging as top destinations for tech companies.
The South Coast’s emergence has come largely from cutting-edge companies clustering around the latest technologies, from computing and lasers to infrared radiation and space engineering. Many were hatched from or later develop ties to the UC Santa Barbara.
Anchoring the local tech community is one of the nation’s best-known tech powerhouses, Google. The tech giant chose the area in 2013 as the home of Google Quantum AI, an endeavor created to develop a new generation of vastly faster and more capable computers.
Erik Lucero, lead quantum engineer for Google in Santa Barbara, credits “great neighbors and support from the local community, all of which has helped us grow in our leadership and mission to build best-in-class quantum computing for otherwise impossible problems,” in a statement to the News-Press.
It’s not just Google that’s found the South Coast welcoming. Grassroots growth is coming from promising startups that are morphing into industry leaders in their own right.
Lucidian, Curvature and Blue Laser Fusion are examples of companies that are becoming known for innovation in their respective fields.
“Santa Barbara and Goleta have a great start-up technology ecosystem,” Shuji Nakamura, a Nobel laureate and founder of Blue Laser Fusion, told the News-Press. “There are office spaces and labs and a trained workforce who can develop the technology and can keep facilities running smoothly.”
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