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Silicon Slopes is a reference to the area surrounding Lehi, Utah where dozens of tech start-ups are centralized. It has been generalized to include the entire startup and technology ecosystem of Utah. Served by the Salt Lake City International Airport and less than a two-hour flight from Silicon Valley, CA, Silicon Slopes has been recognized in news media as an emerging force in the technology sector, including
NPR National Public Radio (NPR, stylized in all lowercase) is an American privately and state funded nonprofit media organization headquartered in Washington, D.C., with its NPR West headquarters in Culver City, California. It differs from other n ...
coverage about the NSA Utah Data Center in the region. The region encompasses a cluster of information technology, software development, and hardware manufacturing and research firms along the Wasatch Front. Some of the better known companies with facilities at Silicon Slopes are memory process technology companies
SanDisk SanDisk is a brand for flash memory products, including memory cards and readers, USB flash drives, solid-state drives, and digital audio players, manufactured and marketed by Western Digital. The original company, SanDisk Corporation was acquir ...
and Intel/
Micron Technology Micron Technology, Inc. is an American producer of computer memory and computer data storage including dynamic random-access memory, flash memory, and USB flash drives. It is headquartered in Boise, Idaho. Its consumer products, includin ...
joint venture IM Flash Technologies, e-commerce company
eBay eBay Inc. ( ) is an American multinational e-commerce company based in San Jose, California, that facilitates consumer-to-consumer and business-to-consumer sales through its website. eBay was founded by Pierre Omidyar in 1995 and became a ...
, data analysis software firm
Adobe Systems Adobe Inc. ( ), originally called Adobe Systems Incorporated, is an American multinational computer software company incorporated in Delaware and headquartered in San Jose, California. It has historically specialized in software for the crea ...
, and banking and technology services company
Zions Bank Zions Bancorporation is a bank holding company headquartered in Salt Lake City, Utah. Zions Bancorporation originated as Keystone Insurance and Investment Co., a Utah Corporation, in April 1955. In April 1960, Keystone, together with several in ...
Silicon Slopes is an emerging technology community that primarily gains status from its relationship to or similarity with
Silicon Valley, California Silicon Valley is a region in Northern California that serves as a global center for high technology and innovation. Located in the southern part of the San Francisco Bay Area, it corresponds roughly to the geographical areas San Mateo County a ...
.


Etymology

The term ''Silicon Slopes'' is the brainchild of
Josh James Josh James is an American entrepreneur, founder and former CEO of Domo, a software-as-a-service (SaaS) company. He also previously co-founded and served as CEO of Omniture, a web analytics company. Career James attended Brigham Young Univers ...
(founder and CEO of Domo) for the purpose to create a branding campaign to promote Utah's growing technology community. The nickname is derived from " Silicon Valley," substituting Utah's mountains (slopes) for Northern California's
Santa Clara Valley The Santa Clara Valley is a geologic trough in Northern California that extends 90 miles (145 km) south–southeast from San Francisco to Hollister. The longitudinal valley is bordered on the west by the Santa Cruz Mountains and on the ea ...
.


History

Historically, the region had been home to a state prison and farmland and little else. Utah's decades-long history of government contract work and innovative Utah businesses' early involvement in the tech industry, include the creation of the Internet as the fourth node of
ARPANET The Advanced Research Projects Agency Network (ARPANET) was the first wide-area packet-switched network with distributed control and one of the first networks to implement the TCP/IP protocol suite. Both technologies became the technical foun ...
. These foundations were built over years, and established Utah's ability to become a leading technology center. Utah also has a strong Internet backbone; it was a Google Fiber early expansion city with service now available in Provo and Salt Lake City as well.


Government Partnerships

Utah has a long history of partnerships with the
U.S. Department of Defense The United States Department of Defense (DoD, USDOD or DOD) is an executive branch department of the federal government charged with coordinating and supervising all agencies and functions of the government directly related to national secur ...
that have contributed to laying the groundwork for the state's high-tech business environment and infrastructure. David C. Evans, a native of Salt Lake City, was one of the original pioneers of computer science in Utah and its groundbreaking work with the DoD. During the early 1960s, Evans worked as the head of the computer science department at the University of California at Berkeley, where he was also in charge of the university's work for the Pentagon's Advanced Research Project Agency (ARPA). In 1965, Evans was recruited back to Salt Lake City to create a computer science department at the University of Utah, and brought DoD contacts with him, including Ivan Sutherland. Evans and Sutherland continued their work on ARPA for the DoD with their colleagues in California and helped to establish
ARPANET The Advanced Research Projects Agency Network (ARPANET) was the first wide-area packet-switched network with distributed control and one of the first networks to implement the TCP/IP protocol suite. Both technologies became the technical foun ...
, an "early packet switching network and the first network to implement the protocol suite TCP/IP." Both of these technologies form the technical foundation of the internet. In 1969, the University of Utah was one of the original four nodes of ARPANET, cementing its place in military and technological history. Due to this early partnership with the DoD, Utah was able to encourage more joint ventures with the military. Not only was Utah capable of developing high-tech infrastructure, many geographic and natural characteristics were appealing to the DoD. Utah is geographically isolated from both the east and the west coasts, providing higher security and less vulnerability to attacks. Utah also has a low probability of large-scale natural disasters and wide open spaces that provide enough room for chemical weapons testing and drone pilot training. Some notable Utah partnerships with the U.S. military include
Hill Air Force Base Hill Air Force Base is a major U.S. Air Force (USAF) base located in northern Utah, just south of the city of Ogden, and bordering the Cities of Layton, Clearfield, Riverdale, Roy, and Sunset with its largest border immediately adjacent to ...
, Utah Test and Training Range, Dugway Proving Ground, and the Tooele Chemical Agent Disposal Facility. In the recent years, Utah has also become home to a growing number of
big data Though used sometimes loosely partly because of a lack of formal definition, the interpretation that seems to best describe Big data is the one associated with large body of information that we could not comprehend when used only in smaller am ...
processing centers. Some of these are government partnerships, such as the largest NSA data storage facility in the United States, located in Bluffdale, Utah. In order to meet the demand and facilitate more partnerships, the University of Utah recently added a new Big Data certificate program within its School of Computing. The program began in the Fall of 2014. Utah is already ahead of the curve in the national trend on big data, and training students how to understand the technicality of big data analysis will continue to attract business and military operations to Utah.


Local Tech Businesses

Examples of early local tech businesses and founders that helped attract more start-ups to the area include:
Evans & Sutherland Evans & Sutherland is a pioneering American computer firm in the computer graphics field. Its current products are used in digital projection environments like planetariums. Its simulation business, which it sold to Rockwell Collins, sold produc ...
, founded in Salt Lake City by David Evans and Ivan Sutherland in 1968, as the world's first computer graphics company (in operation for over four decades supplying advanced computer graphics technologies to the market); David C. Evans, founder and first chairman of the University of Utah School of Computing from 1965 to 1973; James H. Clark, founder of Silicon Graphics, Inc; John Warnock, a co-founder of
Adobe Systems Adobe Inc. ( ), originally called Adobe Systems Incorporated, is an American multinational computer software company incorporated in Delaware and headquartered in San Jose, California. It has historically specialized in software for the crea ...
; Alan Ashton, co-founder of Wordperfect;
Edwin Catmull Edwin Earl "Ed" Catmull (born March 31, 1945) is an American computer scientist who is the co-founder of Pixar and was the President of Walt Disney Animation Studios. He has been honored for his contributions to 3D computer graphics, including th ...
, co-founder of Pixar. The Utah tech scene started with WordPerfect and Novell in 1979.
Novell Novell, Inc. was an American software and services company headquartered in Provo, Utah, that existed from 1980 until 2014. Its most significant product was the multi- platform network operating system known as Novell NetWare. Under the le ...
, Inc., a software development company founded in 1979 by Ray Noorda, produced software to connect desktop computers so they could share peripheral devices, like a
printer (computing) In computing, a printer is a peripheral machine which makes a persistent representation of graphics or text, usually on paper. While most output is human-readable, bar code printers are an example of an expanded use for printers. Differ ...
and
hard disks A hard disk drive (HDD), hard disk, hard drive, or fixed disk is an electro-mechanical data storage device that stores and retrieves digital data using magnetic storage with one or more rigid rapidly rotating platters coated with magnet ...
. As the price of desktop computers began to fall, Novell captured a large segment of the market with its Netware program. At their height in the early 1990s, Novell controlled 65% of the market for network operating systems in the high-tech industry. A second tech wave in Utah came in the 1990s, based on the founding of
Omniture Omniture is an online marketing and web analytics business unit in Orem, Utah. It was acquired by Adobe Systems in 2009. Until 2011, Omniture operated as a business unit within Adobe as the "Omniture Business Unit", but as of 2012 Adobe began ret ...
. During that same period, the 2002 Winter Olympics raised the profile of Utah on the world stage. The 2009 acquisition of Omniture by Adobe in 2009 for $1.8 billion led Adobe to establish a permanent presence in Utah.


Past Political Leadership

Governor Michael Leavitt (1993–2003) was instrumental in luring many tech companies to Utah. During his time in office, Leavitt made monthly trips to Silicon Valley and used his slogan, "We have workers, we have space, we have proximity," to increase his influence there. He specifically highlighted the challenges facing the Silicon Valley region: natural geographic boundaries and traffic congestion. Utah, he maintained, was the place to grow with ease. Leavitt was a key factor in enticing
eBay eBay Inc. ( ) is an American multinational e-commerce company based in San Jose, California, that facilitates consumer-to-consumer and business-to-consumer sales through its website. eBay was founded by Pierre Omidyar in 1995 and became a ...
to locate their main customer service center in Utah and in bringing in new research operations for Intel. Governor Leavitt laid the groundwork for his successors to build on his achievements and continue to make Utah a business-friendly state, particularly for high-tech companies.


Banking History

Utah's economic stability is also reflected in its history as a center for industrial banks and as a secondary financial hub for investment banks like Goldman Sachs that encourage venture capitalism in the state. Industrial banks, also known as Industrial Loan Corporations (ILCs), are a niche form of banking that is nearly exclusively located in Utah. Examples of Utah ILCs include BMW Bank,
Pitney Bowes Pitney Bowes Inc. is an American technology company most known for its postage meters and other mailing equipment and services, and with expansions into e-commerce, software, and other technologies. The company was founded by Arthur Pitney, who ...
Bank, Optum Bank, and Target Bank. Due to this distinction, Utah is the fourth-largest center for state-chartered banking in the nation, with nearly $280 billion in assets within its borders. Utah's industrial banks began in the early 1900s before Congress passed the
Bank Holding Company Act of 1956 The Bank Holding Company Act of 1956 (, ''et seq.'') is a United States Act of Congress that regulates the actions of bank holding companies. The original law (subsequently amended), specified that the Federal Reserve Board of Governors must app ...
, which severed the ties between banking and commercial corporations. Utah's ILCs were grandfathered in, so Utah's industrial-bank charter is not subject to the Bank Holding Company Act. This means that the ILCs are not regulated by the
Federal Reserve The Federal Reserve System (often shortened to the Federal Reserve, or simply the Fed) is the central banking system of the United States of America. It was created on December 23, 1913, with the enactment of the Federal Reserve Act, after ...
; they are overseen by the FDIC and Utah's Department of Financial Services. This allows the banks to be free from more onerous federal regulation and also allows them to be more responsive to changes in the economy. By providing sound oversight in this area of banking, Utah has built credibility in the marketplace and earned a distinguished reputation in banking. This has helped to create the pro-business climate that is attractive to venture capitalists and start-up technology companies. Evidence of the prominence of the Silicon Slopes tech industry is the growing amount of venture capital coming into the area. In the first nine months of 2014, the dollar-per-deal average in the Silicon Slopes was the highest in the country, at an average of $51.3 million per deal. This high average can be attributed to big deals with key players such as Qualtrics and Domo. Qualtrics, a customer analytics software firm, was acquired for 8 billion dollars by SAP


Economy

Utah has often been ranked as one of the top five states for businesses. There is a continuous focus on creating partnerships between businesses, government, education, and communities. The Governor's Office of Economic Development is based on Governor
Gary Herbert Gary Richard Herbert (born May 7, 1947) is an American politician who served as the 17th Governor of Utah from 2009 to 2021. A member of the Republican Party, he chaired the National Governors Association during the 2015–2016 cycle. Herbert w ...
's commitment to economic development statewide. In the most recent State New Economy Index, performed by the
Kauffman Foundation The Ewing Marion Kauffman Foundation (Kauffman Foundation) is a registered 501(c)(3) nonprofit, private foundation based in Kansas City, Missouri. It was founded in 1966 by Ewing Marion Kauffman, who had previously founded the drug company Mar ...
in 2010, Utah was ranked first in the nation for Economic Dynamism and inventor patents, while ranking third in fastest-growing firms.


Notable Companies

Notable companies with locations in the Silicon Slopes region include: *
1-800 Contacts 1-800 Contacts Inc. is an American contact lens retailer based in Draper, Utah. The brands that 1-800 Contacts use includes Johnson & Johnson Vision Care, Alcon, Bausch & Lomb and CooperVision. The company was founded as the industry's first wa ...
*
Adobe Adobe ( ; ) is a building material made from earth and organic materials. is Spanish for ''mudbrick''. In some English-speaking regions of Spanish heritage, such as the Southwestern United States, the term is used to refer to any kind of e ...
* Ancestry.com * Authorize.Net *
Backcountry In the United States, a backcountry or backwater is a geographical area that is remote, undeveloped, isolated, or difficult to access. Terminology Backcountry and wilderness within United States national parks The National Park Service (NPS ...
* BambooHR *
Cisco Cisco Systems, Inc., commonly known as Cisco, is an American-based multinational digital communications technology conglomerate corporation headquartered in San Jose, California. Cisco develops, manufactures, and sells networking hardware, ...
* doTerra * Bluehost * Control4 * DevMountain * DigiCert * Discover Card * Domo *
eBay eBay Inc. ( ) is an American multinational e-commerce company based in San Jose, California, that facilitates consumer-to-consumer and business-to-consumer sales through its website. eBay was founded by Pierre Omidyar in 1995 and became a ...
* eFileCabinet * Engineering Animation * Facebook * Guitar Center *
HealthEquity HealthEquity, Inc. is an American financial technology and business services company that is designated as a non-bank health savings trustee by the IRS. This designation allows HealthEquity to be the custodian of health savings accounts regardles ...
*
Henry Schein Henry Schein, Inc. is an American distributor of health care products and services with a presence in 32 countries. The company is a ''Fortune'' World's Most Admired Company and is ranked number one in its industry for social responsibility by '' ...
(Formally Dentrix) * Instructure *
Intermountain Health Care Intermountain Health (formerly Intermountain Healthcare) is a Non-profit organization, not-for-profit Health care, healthcare system and is the largest healthcare provider in the Intermountain West of the United States. Intermountain Healthcare ...
*
Ivanti Ivanti () is an IT software company headquartered in South Jordan, Utah, United States. It produces software for IT Security, IT Service Management, IT Asset Management, Unified Endpoint Management, Identity Management and Supply Chain Management ...
(formerly LANDESK) *
LexisNexis LexisNexis is a part of the RELX corporation that sells data analytics products and various databases that are accessed through online portals, including portals for computer-assisted legal research (CALR), newspaper search, and consumer informa ...
* Lingotek * Microsoft * Micro Focus (formerly
NOVELL Novell, Inc. was an American software and services company headquartered in Provo, Utah, that existed from 1980 until 2014. Its most significant product was the multi- platform network operating system known as Novell NetWare. Under the le ...
) * MokiMobility * Nature's Sunshine *
NortonLifeLock Gen Digital Inc. (formerly Symantec Corporation and NortonLifeLock) is a multinational software company co-headquartered in Tempe, Arizona and Prague, Czech Republic. The company provides cybersecurity software and services. Gen is a Fortune 50 ...
(formerly Symantec) * Northrop Grumman * Nu Skin * Oracle *
Overstock Overstock, excessive stock, excess2sell, B-stock, or excess inventory, is the result of poor management of stock demand or of material flow in process management. Excessive stock is also associated with loss of revenue owing to additional capit ...
*
Pluralsight Pluralsight, LLC is an American privately held online education company that offers a variety of video training courses for software developers, IT administrators, and creative professionals through its website. Founded in 2004 by Aaron Skonnar ...
* Podium * Proofpoint *
Qualtrics Qualtrics is an American experience management company, with co-headquarters in Seattle, Washington, and Provo, Utah, in the United States. The company was founded in 2002 by Scott M. Smith, Ryan Smith, Jared Smith, and Stuart Orgill. Qualtric ...
*
SanDisk SanDisk is a brand for flash memory products, including memory cards and readers, USB flash drives, solid-state drives, and digital audio players, manufactured and marketed by Western Digital. The original company, SanDisk Corporation was acquir ...
*
SirsiDynix SirsiDynix is a United States company which produces integrated library system (ILS) software and associated services for libraries. Origins The Sirsi Corporation was founded in Huntsville, Alabama in 1979 by Mike Murdock, Jacky Young, and Jim Yo ...
* StubHub * SUSE *
Sunrun Sunrun is an American provider of photovoltaic systems and battery energy storage products, primarily for residential customers. The company was established in 2007 and is headquartered in San Francisco, California. Since its inception, the c ...
* Texas Instruments * UnitedHealth Group * Usana * Venafi *
Visa Visa most commonly refers to: *Visa Inc., a US multinational financial and payment cards company ** Visa Debit card issued by the above company ** Visa Electron, a debit card ** Visa Plus, an interbank network *Travel visa, a document that allows ...
*
Vivint Vivint is a public smart home company in the United States and Canada. It was founded by Keith Nellesen and Todd Pedersen in 1999. In 2012, The Blackstone Group acquired Vivint for more than $2 billion. In January 2020, the company completed a ...
* Workday *
Workfront Adobe Workfront is a Lehi, Utah-based software company that develops web-based work management and project management software that features enterprise work management, issue tracking, document management, time tracking and portfolio management ...
* Xactware *
Zions Bank Zions Bancorporation is a bank holding company headquartered in Salt Lake City, Utah. Zions Bancorporation originated as Keystone Insurance and Investment Co., a Utah Corporation, in April 1955. In April 1960, Keystone, together with several in ...


Notable Government Facilities

* NSA Utah Data Center *
Hill Air Force Base Hill Air Force Base is a major U.S. Air Force (USAF) base located in northern Utah, just south of the city of Ogden, and bordering the Cities of Layton, Clearfield, Riverdale, Roy, and Sunset with its largest border immediately adjacent to ...
* Utah Test and Training Range * Dugway Proving Ground * Tooele Chemical Agent Disposal Facility


Economic Development

Utah's economic stability has grown to meet the standards of the tech giants that occupy the Silicon Slopes area. This was made possible in 2009 by Governor
Gary Herbert Gary Richard Herbert (born May 7, 1947) is an American politician who served as the 17th Governor of Utah from 2009 to 2021. A member of the Republican Party, he chaired the National Governors Association during the 2015–2016 cycle. Herbert w ...
who focused on four cornerstones to strengthen the economy of Utah: jobs, energy, education and self-determination. Governor Herbert credits the economic momentum in Utah to collaborate between corporate and government partnerships. The Governor's Office of Economic Development, led by Spencer P. Eccles, coordinated with Governor Herbert to build on the economic development cornerstones, calling it economic development 2.0. The updated objectives to help sustain the economic growth in Utah, allowing the Silicon Slope regions to expand, strengthen, and grow existing Utah businesses, increase innovation, entrepreneurship and investment, national and international business, and prioritize education to develop the workforce of the future.


Demographics


Location, Climate and Geography

Utah's location is enticing to both companies and employees. With close proximity to the
Rocky Mountains The Rocky Mountains, also known as the Rockies, are a major mountain range and the largest mountain system in North America. The Rocky Mountains stretch in straight-line distance from the northernmost part of western Canada, to New Mexico in ...
, many activities are available year-round. Four distinct seasons offer such year-round activities as skiing, hiking, and rock climbing. Utah also has many national parks, including Zion National Park,
Bryce Canyon National Park Bryce Canyon National Park () is an American national park located in southwestern Utah. The major feature of the park is Bryce Canyon, which despite its name, is not a canyon, but a collection of giant natural amphitheaters along the eastern ...
, and
Canyonlands National Park Canyonlands National Park is an American national park located in southeastern Utah near the town of Moab. The park preserves a colorful landscape eroded into numerous canyons, mesas, and buttes by the Colorado River, the Green River, and their ...
.
Salt Lake City Salt Lake City (often shortened to Salt Lake and abbreviated as SLC) is the capital and most populous city of Utah, United States. It is the seat of Salt Lake County, the most populous county in Utah. With a population of 200,133 in 2020, t ...
is a Delta Airlines hub and is perfectly situated to allow for business day trips from Silicon Valley due to direct, 90-minute flights that cut travel expenses and limit travel time. Utah offers many incentives that are more attractive than other cities in the Western region: the cost of living is lower than in Seattle or Portland; the climate is not as hot as Phoenix or
Albuquerque Albuquerque ( ; ), ; kee, Arawageeki; tow, Vakêêke; zun, Alo:ke:k'ya; apj, Gołgéeki'yé. abbreviated ABQ, is the most populous city in the U.S. state of New Mexico. Its nicknames, The Duke City and Burque, both reference its founding in ...
; geographic proximity is closer than
Austin Austin is the capital city of the U.S. state of Texas, as well as the seat and largest city of Travis County, with portions extending into Hays and Williamson counties. Incorporated on December 27, 1839, it is the 11th-most-populous city i ...
, allowing for less travel time and cost; and the ski slopes can be reached in less than an hour, unlike Denver.


Workforce

Utah boasts a highly educated, technologically proficient, multilingual workforce, speaking over 130 languages. Many residents of Utah lived and worked abroad which contributes to the flexibility and capabilities of the companies. Utah also maintains the youngest population in the United States due to its higher-than-average birth rate. The median age in Utah is 29.6 years, compared to the nationwide median of 37.3 years. This young labor force is very attractive to employers as baby boomers throughout the nation retire and many states find it difficult to replenish their workforce due to falling birth rates.


Schools Partnerships

Universities and high schools in the area have worked on expanding computer science programs in response to the growth of Silicon Slopes. In the early 2000s, the Utah Legislature allocated around $100 million to the state's universities in order to bolster their computer science programs and significantly increase the number of graduates in the field. The universities also provided matching funding and created many new courses and areas of technological study. In October 2021 the University of Utah announced a $15 million donation from the John Price family to construct a new $120 million computer science building. Around the same time
Utah Valley University Utah Valley University (UVU) is a public university in Orem, Utah. UVU offers master's, bachelor's, associate degrees, and certificates. Previously called Utah Valley State College, the school attained university status in July 2008. History ...
received a $25 million donation from Ryan Smith for its computer science program. Combined the University of Utah and UVU have about 3,400 computer science students. In fall 2019 UVU began offering a tech management MBA in partnership with Silicon Slopes. As of August 2015, high schools students in Utah are allowed to count a Computer Science course as one of three science classes needed for graduation.


Infrastructure

A key contributor to Silicon Slopes' successful tech industry is the well-planned Internet infrastructure. Salt Lake City is in a fortunate geographic location because it sits along the major east-west Internet corridor where ten major service providers interconnect with each other and deliver high-speed services to the area. This "internet backbone" is a critical aspect of Utah's high-tech industry success. In Provo, the city government started planning a fiber-optic Internet infrastructure in the late 1990s. This high-speed Internet system was funded as a private-public partnership called iProvo and construction was completed in 2006. Google Fiber later acquired iProvo in 2013 and now offers Internet speeds up to 1,000 Mbit/s for businesses and households. In response to the high-tech industry located in Salt Lake City and its relationship with Provo, Google officially announced in March 2015 that Salt Lake City would be one of the next places to receive Google Fiber. Construction is currently ongoing, but significant progress has been made, and residents and businesses will soon be able to sign-up for lightning-fast internet service. Requests for business permits in the area have drastically increased in response to the soon-to-be-available service.


Corporate Recruitment

The State of Utah has offered a variety of incentives to encourage large tech companies to call Utah home. The Utah Governor's Office of Economic Development allows a variety of grants and tax incentives to companies willing to either relocate or expand their enterprise, depending on the stability of the company and the types of jobs that are being brought to the state. In 2019, Forbes ranked Utah as the third best state for business, and in 2021 U.S. News & World Report ranked Utah as the state with the top economy. In both 2014 and 2015 Utah was the best performing state in the
Chamber of Commerce A chamber of commerce, or board of trade, is a form of business network. For example, a local organization of businesses whose goal is to further the interests of businesses. Business owners in towns and cities form these local societies to a ...
Enterprising States project, and was ranked in the top 10 for economic performance and all five major policy areas. In 2014 Utah was ranked sixth or better in all six categories.


Corporation Requirements

To qualify for the tax benefits or grant programs associated with the Silicon Slopes region, there are specific guidelines in place to determine if the state will offer incentives to encourage relocation. These incentives are evaluated on a case-by-case basis by th
Governor's Office
and th
Executive Director
Some of these standards include the industry the company is in, historical successes of the company, revenues that are raised and the types of jobs that were created. The jobs that are being brought in need to require specific qualifications and maintain certain salaries to maintain a well-educated, professional workforce within the state. To monitor these qualifications, grants and tax credits are only awarded after each corporation has proven its ability to provide the jobs and revenue required.


Rural Development

A motivational factor for the
State of Utah Utah ( , ) is a state in the Mountain West subregion of the Western United States. Utah is a landlocked U.S. state bordered to its east by Colorado, to its northeast by Wyoming, to its north by Idaho, to its south by Arizona, and to its ...
to provide incentives to corporations for expansion or relocation is the development of rural areas or deteriorating regions. The Silicon Slopes region is located between two of Utah's largest metropolises,
Salt Lake City Salt Lake City (often shortened to Salt Lake and abbreviated as SLC) is the capital and most populous city of Utah, United States. It is the seat of Salt Lake County, the most populous county in Utah. With a population of 200,133 in 2020, t ...
and Provo. Historically, this area has been largely underdeveloped, with the exception of the much smaller cities of
Alpine Alpine may refer to any mountainous region. It may also refer to: Places Europe * Alps, a European mountain range ** Alpine states, which overlap with the European range Australia * Alpine, New South Wales, a Northern Village * Alpine National P ...
,
Highland Highlands or uplands are areas of high elevation such as a mountainous region, elevated mountainous plateau or high hills. Generally speaking, upland (or uplands) refers to ranges of hills, typically from up to while highland (or highlands) is ...
, American Fork,
Lehi Lehi (; he, לח"י – לוחמי חרות ישראל ''Lohamei Herut Israel – Lehi'', "Fighters for the Freedom of Israel – Lehi"), often known pejoratively as the Stern Gang,"This group was known to its friends as LEHI and to its enemie ...
, Pleasant Grove, Lindon, and Orem City. Orem is the largest of the group, with a population of just under 100,000. To accelerate the development of this area and surrounding areas, the Governor's Office of Economic Development
GOED
established the Economic Development Tax Increment Financing (EDTID) tax credit. Additionally, th
Utah Office of Rural Development
created th
Utah Enterprise Zone Tax Credit
to motivate business to choose locations that would benefit these rural areas. These credits can compound depending on employee wages compared to surrounding businesses, and are structured to encourage strong economic growth and professional retention to the area. The United States Department of Agriculture ( USDA) has also partnered with the State of Utah to provide other motivating factors to prospective employees of Silicon Slope companies. Homes can be purchased with specifically structured mortgages that require little to no down payment, and can include extra financing to update or refurnish older homes.


References

{{coord missing, Utah Geography of Utah High-technology business districts in the United States Economy of Utah