There’s nothing surprising in the rankings of total investment, but two places do stand out when you look at the list of per capita investment: Boulder and Carson City, NV. Boulder is a powerhouse with a remarkable number of “leading sector” industries, but to come in at two and a half times the per capita investment in Austin, which has a much better engineering school?. And where the heck is Carson City, NV, which has nearly twice the investment per capita as Austin? Google it and you’ll see that’s the northeast corner of Lake Tahoe. Covid freed a lot of Silicon Valley’s top engineers to work anywhere they want to, and they’re choosing the Sierras and great skiing.