The U.S. Commerce Department will choose projects to receive US$40 million to US$70 million in funding to develop their sectors and local innovation ecosystems. (The Logic)

Talking point: The program aims to kickstart technology-based economies in communities outside typical centres like Silicon Valley and New York. Each hub is a consortium of academic institutions, local governments, companies and non-profits. (In Canada, we called them “superclusters.”) The cohort that Commerce selected includes groups focused on critical minerals, artificial intelligence, quantum computing and biotech. One aims to build a semiconductor corridor in New York state; Canadian officials are simultaneously working to build a chip passageway across the border into Quebec. Foreign firms are allowed to participate, but most of the new jobs and capital the projects create must happen within the bidding geographic areas.