Planes, trains and automobiles can be seen moving in AllianceTexas in north Fort Worth, but a start-up aviation company says making a “sky train” is starting to come to fruition in the area.
The company, Aerolane, announced its headquarters at Perot Field Fort Worth Alliance Airport in April. During an Oct. 1 event at the airport, a crowd that included Hillwood executives, investors and U.S. Congressman Jake Ellzey saw Aerolane’s towed cargo glider technology in action as a plane took off with another plane tethered behind it.
Aerolane, which consists of former executives from Prime Air and BNSF, envisions using gliders to tug cargo as a way to save energy for future customers and make air cargo transportation more efficient.
The trial flight marked an important milestone for Aerolane, which has been testing its technology for months out of Reese Airpark, a decommissioned air base in Lubbock.
Aerolane co-founder and chief commercial officer Prescott Watson described Perot Field as a much busier and complex airspace than Reese. The airport is a major hub for Amazon Prime Air and FedEx, and is home to the BNSF Railway Alliance Intermodal Facility. Perot Field saw 628.7 million pounds of air cargo arriving and departing the area last year, according to data from the Texas Comptroller.
“It is a huge deal that we have gotten to the point where we can show that towed flight or aero towing is not only something that saves a tremendous amount of fuel, but it can be done repeatedly, and it can be done in a complex environment without interrupting commercial operations,” Watson said.
Now, Aerolane is waiting for certification to implement its technology on a commercial scale. The company is currently going through a series of design approvals from the Federal Aviation Administration to convert existing aircraft into tow gliders. Customers have already signed up for the tow technology, known as the AC0. Watson said Aerolane contracted $300 million with a customer described as a large regional carrier, but would not disclose the name of the company.
Watson described the customer as “one of the most important and largest regional carriers that serves the United States, but also flies to and from Mexico, the Caribbean, Canada.
“So it’s a large airline well north of 100 planes, big presence on the West Coast, as well as in Texas,” he said.
The carrier uses planes that transport more than 7,500 pounds of cargo.
Todd Graetz, CEO and co-founder of Aerolane, said the company is starting with smaller air cargo carriers as a gradual way to bring the technology to the FAA, and start making an economic impact.
“Everybody gets excited about the really big planes, but the real huge near-term economic impact comes from the smaller planes that take care of the 200 underserved airports,” he said.
George Kirov, Aerolane’s head of strategy, said he thinks the company’s technology and gliders will be attractive because it will help companies save money on fuel and repairs.
While much of Aerolane’s early attention has been focused on engineering, testing and certification of its aircraft, the company is now entering its next phase.
“We have to get investors to fund us to produce the orders,” he said.
If all goes well for the company, Aerolane executives such as Graetz imagine hundreds of employees working out of Alliance assembling the company’s future aircraft designed for towing technology.
Hyper-local, real-time, low-altitude weather data will help delivery drones and autonomous vehicles in Fort Worth operate more safely.
Watch NBC 5 segment here
Fort Worth is rolling out a drone project that leaders say is the first of its kind in the world.
A network of 27 weather sensors has been deployed to fill gaps in weather data so that drone operators and autonomous vehicles can operate more safely, even if there aren’t perfect weather conditions.
TruWeather Solutions’ Metro Weather Wind Guardians is part of the project, which the company describes as “a Doppler lidar capable of detecting wind speed and direction up to 15 km away, and at a 10-meter vertical resolution?.”
It’s basically a mini weather station.
For more than two days in early August the skies above the Texas Motor Speedway in Fort Worth were filled with the buzz of activity as drone and helicopter flights were conducted in synch with one another to demonstrate a technology that could one day coordinate the use of manned and unmanned aircraft to combat wildland fires.
The event, dubbed Operation Fire Swarm 2, was held at the Hillwood Flight Test Center (FTC) at Perot Field at Fort Worth Alliance Airport near the speedway. It featured the combined efforts of a group of UAV and software companies and educational and government agencies. The autonomously operated aircraft engaged in a series of complex coordinated maneuvers to battle simulated wildfires using the BlueSkies Operational Air Mobility system, which was designed to coordinate the operations of manned and unmanned aircraft in metropolitan airspace or wildfire conditions.
Keven Gambold, CEO and co-founder of Unmanned Experts, said Operation Fire Swarm 2 demonstrated “the first ever fully autonomous end-to-end utilization of both” the FAA’s Unmanned Aircraft System Traffic Management (UTM) and NASA’s Provider of Services for Urban Air Mobility (PSU) system. Unmanned Experts served as Fire Swarm 2’s program manager.
The demonstration also helped prove out the concept of the “second shift” in wildfire management, in which unmanned aircraft could be deployed to fight fires at night, when flying manned firefighting aircraft became too dangerous.
“This concept of second shift is that the night portion belongs to the drone,” he said. Under this scenario manned aircraft– planes and helicopters – would battle blazing wildfires during the day. Then at nightfall, “We give all of these aerial firefighting capabilities over to unmanned or autonomous assets, and let them fight the fire for the next eight hours until the sun comes up,” he said.
According to a press release, Operation Fire Swarm 2 was the first ever fully autonomous, multi-aircraft, multi-operator, live flight operation demonstrating vehicle-to-vehicle communications in flight. In the demonstration scenario, upon the detection of a fire near the FTC, a team is deployed to the area and establishes an Incident Command Center (ICC), from which the incident commander plans and deploys the response to the disaster.
Because of the danger of touching off a real wildfire in the area, the team instead created wildfire simulations, Gambold said. “We weren’t burning anything for real. It’s August in Texas. We were just faking the fire,” he said.
The team uploaded data giving the general fire location into the system and a group of autonomous search drones was launched to search the “fire traffic area.” In the meantime, a ground scheduler programed routes to the water sources that would be used to extinguish the fire, a number of ponds northeast of the fire traffic area. While a real-world scenario would call for a swarm of water-bomber drones to douse the flames, for purposes of the Fire Swarm demonstration that part was played by a manned aircraft from the Helicopter Institute, fitted with BlueSkies software.
Gambold said the team had planned to use two helicopters but one of the choppers became unserviceable, so they had to use one helicopter along with a simulated version.
“The whole thing’s virtually constructed, so it works the same way,” he said. The system allowed the manned and unmanned aerial vehicles to deconflict with one another on their way up to the water sources and then continue to safely share the airspace with each other on the return trip to the fire traffic area.
“When they get into the fire traffic area, they’re given all of these routes autonomously. They then talk on a vehicle-communications link with the ISR (Intelligence, Surveillance and Reconnaissance) asset, which updates them with the target location, clears out the way, and then they go in and simulate dropping the water on the fire location,” Gambold said.
After completing one assigned fire-fighting flight, the aircraft returned to the staging point to refuel, before taking off on the next mission. The aircraft flew about five missions over the two-and-a-half-day demonstration.
Throughout the exercise, the aircraft communicated directly with one another, with the vehicles designated as water bombers talking to the search drones to receive updated locations of the fire hot spots. This information in turn was used to determine where to conduct the simulated dropping of fire retardants.
In addition to scheduling and monitoring all of flights and facilitating vehicle-to-vehicle communications, the system guided the tactical operations, managing potential airspace conflicts and managing contingencies such as changes in the weather. All this is based on the data that’s fed into the system at the outset. “You can drop in any sort of what are called capacity constraints or any issues, weather — it gets live weather feeds – or any closures of the airspace.”
The team conducting the Fire Swarm event is known as the North Texas Cohort. The team comprises Hillwood and its affiliate Alliance Aviation Services, which owns and operates the AllianceTexas Flight Test Center; the Helicopter Institute as the air platform, crew, and training partner; Avianco as one of the PSU providers; Metron as the demand-capability balancing software developer; Hermes as the primary data-hub; AAMTEX as the UTM and weather service provider; the University of North Texas as the program lead, and Unmanned Experts as the program manager and BlueSkies development and marketing team.
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The North Texas Commission has awarded Mike Berry, president of Hillwood, the prestigious Dan Petty Regional Visionary Award, its highest honor recognizing transformational leadership in the region.
Named after the Commission’s former president and CEO, the award celebrates leaders whose vision and contributions have significantly advanced North Texas’ economic vitality. For Berry, the recognition carried special meaning, as he worked alongside Dan Petty early in his career at Woodbine Development Corporation.
Berry received the award at the commission’s 54th Annual Members’ Luncheon, where business and civic leaders gathered to celebrate progress and leadership across the 13-county region.
“Honoring Mike Berry with the Dan Petty Regional Visionary Award recognizes a leader whose vision continues to shape North Texas,” said Chris Wallace, president and CEO of the North Texas Commission. “Mike and the Hillwood Team have delivered transformational projects that create jobs, attract global investment and strengthen our region’s competitive edge. His passion for North Texas, collaborative spirit, strong civic engagement and decades of service at Hillwood have forged a multi-generational impact, which is the true measure of a lasting legacy.”
Founded in 1971, the North Texas Commission is a public-private partnership that drives large, impactful projects and legislative initiatives across the 13-county region. The commission works to tackle regional challenges, market North Texas, and provide a unified advocacy voice at the state and federal levels, while educating future leaders.
As president of Hillwood, Berry oversees strategic planning, business development, and real estate investment across the Properties division. That portfolio includes AllianceTexas, one of the nation’s most successful master-planned developments. Spanning 27,000 acres, AllianceTexas is home to more than 590 companies, supports 66,000 jobs, and generates $4.3 billion in annual property taxes. Since its creation, the development has contributed over $130 billion in economic impact, including $10.2 billion in 2024 alone.
Under Berry’s leadership, AllianceTexas has become a cornerstone for innovation in logistics, mobility, and industrial development. Recent milestones include Hillwood’s partnership with SGS Studios, which opened the state’s largest production facility on the AllianceTexas campus. Developed with Paramount Television, the studio supports up to four simultaneous large-scale productions.
Berry has also championed the AllianceTexas Mobility Innovation Zone, an ecosystem advancing next-generation air and ground mobility solutions. In 2024, Hillwood and partners including NCTCOG, TxDOT, Fort Worth and Haslet secured an $80 million INFRA grant as part of a $262 million initiative. The project will double inland port capacity, improve I-35W traffic flow, and enhance safety, air quality, and job access. AllianceTexas Smart Port was one of just 44 projects selected nationally, and the only one in Texas.
Beyond Hillwood, Berry plays an active civic role, serving on the Board of Trustees at TCU, the Board of Advisors for the Neeley School of Business, and as chair of the Fort Worth Economic Development Partnership. He is also a Founders Council member of the Greater Fort Worth Real Estate Council and a board member of Safe City Fort Worth, among other posts.
A Virginia-based aviation-oriented weather company has begun testing its advanced low-altitude weather forecasting technology geared to helping pave the way for increased drone traffic and the launch of advanced air mobility (AAM) operations in the Dallas/Fort Worth region.
TruWeather Solutions, working in cooperation with real-estate development company Hillwood and its affiliates AllianceTexas and Fort Worth Alliance Airport, the city of Fort Worth and the North Central Texas Council of Governments, to develop an “urban weather testbed” to provide drone pilots in the region with hyper-local weather data.
The project will entail deploying more than 20 advanced weather and wind sensors across key locations throughout AllianceTexas, a mixed-use planned community which includes the fixed base operation (FBO) at Perot Field at Fort Worth Alliance Airport. The sensors will provide critical data on wind speeds and directions, particularly in the vicinity of area buildings.
“We are now running a model that can see the winds around the buildings,” TruWeather CEO Don Berchoff said in an interview. The team is using machine learning to analyze the data and to create a model that shows drone pilots how the presence of buildings can cause dramatic changes in the speed and direction of low-altitude winds.
Berchoff said the standard tools that manned aviation pilots use to analyze weather, such as the Meteorological Aerodrome Report (METAR), an international standard for reporting hourly surface weather observations at airports, are insufficient to provide the weather data needed by UAV pilots.
“The lack of weather data between METAR sites means that it’s unknowable. When you’re flying you can’t know what you’re flying in if you’re not with the aircraft,” he said. The FAA has now recognized this deficiency in its Precision Runway Monitor system (PRM). “If you look at the weather section, they now acknowledge that once you get five miles from the airport (METAR data) is not relevant and you are basically flying blind.”
Recognizing the need of UAV operators AAM pilots for accurate low-altitude weather data, the FAA is opening up the door to allow trusted and appropriate third-party weather services to provide that data, he said.
“Just think of us as a supplemental data service supplier,” Berchoff said.
“We are moving to a data-performance standard just like UTM [Unmanned Aircraft System Traffic Management] has in the rest of the industry,” he said. “So, we we’re unlocking all this great technology that before couldn’t break into the aviation system — through all the rules and through all the bureaucracy — and we’re now unlocking the weather.”
The TruWeather system shows pilots what the winds are doing at different atmospheric layers from ground level up to 900 feet. Currently available wind-speed data can have a high error rate, which can present significant problems for drone pilots. Berchoff said he has seen cases in which the actual low-level wind speeds were double the speeds that had been forecast.
“Every percentage point of wind error causes a loss of battery power,” he said. “You’re going into a headwind and you might have 20% less battery than you thought you had, even on a bright daylight day.”
Conversely, he said that 30% to 40% of drone deliveries that are canceled due to weather could have been flown safely if the operators had access to more accurate weather data.
“They’re being conservative and being safe. What we want to do is get better data, find more safely, generate more revenue and more reliability,” he said. “It’s going to be the same problem with air taxis. They’re very limited by power and the winds are going to be a major factor.”
Sensor system set to expand
TruWeather eventually plans to deploy 30 sensors in its DFW-area system, with the remaining deployments scheduled to be completed by October 1.
The company had proved out the concept of a weather testbed in Hampton, Virginia with a $6 million NASA grant. The DFW urban weather testbed project is being funded through a combination of sources, including a NASA Small Business Innovation Research Award and a $2 million U.S. Department of Transportation (DOT) SMART Grant awarded to the city of Fort Worth.
“We’re using that grant money to prove out this concept of high-density data collections in Fort Worth,” Berchoff said. TruWeather is currently working on securing its phase-two grant, which would allow the company to expand its sensor array to cover a much larger area.
Berchoff credited TruWeather’s partner company, Metro Weather, whose advanced LiDAR technology was used in the development of Wind Guardian, a state-of-the-art low-altitude wind-sensing system that sits at the center of the testbed’s weather system.
He added that other vital partners in the DFW project include Hillwood, which provided sites for the project’s sensors and Alliance Airport. “Hillwood has been a great champion of this. Their real estate group has given us access to the airport and other properties,” he said. The testbed’s team has included other DFW-area companies, which Berchoff could not identify because of non-disclosure agreements.
“By partnering with TruWeather, we will go beyond enabling advanced air mobility,” Christopher Ash, president of Alliance Aviation Companies at Alliance Airport, said in a statement. “We’re helping define the standards and best practices to guide its nationwide growth, which will aid in the safe, reliable deployment of drone technology and autonomous trucking.”
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Dallas-Fort Worth has landed in elite company in a recent national analysis of America’s AI economy.
Brookings Metro, the policy arm of the Brookings Institution, named Dallas-Fort Worth one of 30 U.S. metros leading the country in artificial intelligence. The region ranked No. 13 overall.
DFW also earned a place in the report’s top tier of “AI Star Hubs,” a group of 28 metros that combine top-ranked talent, innovation, and business adoption. Two metros, San Francisco and San Jose, were singled out as “Superstars” for their unusually dense concentrations of AI activity.
Together, the 30 metros are driving the bulk of the country’s AI growth, according to the Washington, D.C.–based think tank. They account for 67% of AI-related job postings across the metros studied.
In Dallas-Fort Worth, that translated to 22,043 postings in 2024.
What does it mean to be “ready” for AI?
Some metros are better equipped than others.
Brookings’ July study, “Mapping the AI Economy: Which Regions Are Ready for the Next Technological Leap?,” analyzed 387 U.S. metro areas and grouped them into six tiers based on AI “readiness.”
The researchers note that activity is still heavily concentrated in the Bay Area—the “Superstars”—but the geography of AI has broadened with the rise of generative and agentic systems.
Star Hubs represent what Brookings called “an echelon of uniformly strong AI ecosystems,” balancing talent, research, and enterprise uptake. These metros scored in the top 25% across all three pillars.
Dallas-Fort Worth earned its place by showing strength across the board, rather than excelling in only one area.
That balance didn’t happen overnight. Between 2021 and 2025, DFW’s AI footprint expanded. Compared to Brookings’ 2021 benchmark chart, the 2025 profile shows notable gains, especially in business adoption.
Metrics such as cloud readiness, job postings, and exposure to generative AI all surged, with exposure now reaching 36% of local jobs.
Dallas-Fort Worth’s AI arsenal
Brookings’ data shows Dallas-Fort Worth stacking up across three pillars—talent, innovation infrastructure, and business adoption.
The talent engine:
530,550 graduates in computer science, engineering, and mathematics
2,093 Ph.D. students in related programs
7,838 workers with AI skills in online profiles
Innovation infrastructure:
49 AI research papers published at top conferences
816 AI-related patents granted
5 federal R&D contracts focused on AI
9.9 million NSF ACCESS credits for high-performance computing
Business adoption:
- 22,043 job postings seeking AI skills
- 344 startups creating AI-driven products
- 137 venture capital deals for AI companies
- 36% of local jobs exposed to generative AI
- 31% of firms with files in digital format
- 26% of firms using cloud tech
The nation’s general readiness to benefit from AI is critical. “One of the clearest indicators,” wrote report authors Mark Muro and Shriya Methkupally, “is the rising share of businesses reporting current or anticipated use of AI technologies.”
Even so, the study found that adoption still lags the infrastructure. In Dallas-Fort Worth, only about 5% of firms actively use AI—a level the researchers said is typical even in top metros.
Readiness, they show, comes down to whether businesses are actually applying AI to produce goods or services. To track that, the U.S. Census Bureau has posed a straightforward survey question: “In the last two weeks, did this business use Artificial Intelligence (AI) in producing goods or services?”
Nationally, the answers point to change. Census data shows adoption rose from 4% in early 2023 to 8.7% by mid-2025, with another 11% of firms planning to adopt AI within six months.
AI inflection point, and a power shift
Brookings calls this moment “an inflection point for regional economic development.”
The Bay Area still leads, accounting for 13% of the study’s AI job postings while making up just 2.7% of U.S. metro employment. Anchored by OpenAI, Google, and Nvidia, the region also draws a disproportionate share of early-stage investment. One example: San Francisco–based Databricks raised $10 billion in 2024, the year’s largest AI deal.
But Brookings makes it clear other metros are gaining ground.
Star Hubs such as Dallas-Fort Worth are driving much of the nation’s growth in adoption and investment. “These metro areas are bridging the gap between the established Superstars and the rest of the country,” the researchers wrote. “Their presence and potential are significant.”
Collectively, Star Hubs generate more than half of U.S. AI job postings, nearly two-thirds of federal R&D contracts, over half of AI research publications, and 53% of venture capital deals for AI startups.
Texas leads all states with four Star Hubs: Dallas-Fort Worth, Austin, Houston, and San Antonio. Each of the latter three saw AI job growth above 250% from 2018 to 2025, making the Texas Triangle a statewide engine for AI innovation.
The full roster also includes heavyweights such as New York, Boston, and Los Angeles, as well as rising centers such as Gainesville, Florida, and Boulder, Colorado.
Where other metros stand
Beyond the Superstars and Star Hubs, Brookings grouped the remaining 357 metro areas into four categories.
Emerging Centers show strength in two pillars but are still developing in a third—often business adoption. Detroit, Pittsburgh, Tampa, and Nashville fit here. Focused Movers concentrate in one area, such as research or talent, typically anchored by universities or industry clusters; Cleveland, Knoxville, and Albany are examples.
Most metros fall into the Nascent Adopters and Others buckets—regions still building digital infrastructure but lacking significant workforce, startup, or research activity.
Brookings sees potential across all tiers but warns that the economic benefits of AI will flow unevenly without targeted local and national strategies to close the gaps.
Proof on the ground in Dallas-Fort Worth
If Brookings provides the national map, a new Dallas Regional Chamber and Accenture report shows what that looks like up close. The Business of Artificial Intelligence points to what makes DFW different: a diverse economy where AI isn’t siloed in one sector but tested and scaled across many.
The report positions Dallas-Fort Worth as an incubator for applied AI, naming a cross section of companies across supply chain, life sciences, logistics, real estate, and cybersecurity, including:
o9 Solutions, a Dallas unicorn valued at $3.7 billion, built a “Digital Brain” platform to help global companies rethink supply chains and finance. In life sciences, Caris Life Sciences is expanding its AI-driven cancer diagnostics platform, now valued at more than $7 billion after its 2025 IPO; Lantern Pharma is using machine learning to speed oncology drug discovery; and Colossal Biosciences became Texas’ first decacorn by applying AI to de-extinction science and spinning off new ventures in health and research.
Beyond biotech, Island.io reached quad unicorn status with its enterprise browser that lets corporations deploy generative AI securely. Aurora Innovation is preparing the Dallas-to-Houston corridor for fully driverless freight from its southern Dallas County terminal. CBRE, the Dallas-based Fortune 500 real estate firm, has built an internal generative AI platform to safeguard client data, while Hillwood’s AllianceTexas Mobility Innovation Zone is serving as a proving ground for AI-powered logistics.
Taken together, the examples show how Dallas-Fort Worth’s diverse economy is already putting AI to work. And as Brookings notes, even metros with clear momentum must keep pressing forward to capture the full economic benefit.
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Ross Perot Jr., U.S. Chamber Board Chair and aviation pioneer, emphasizes the importance of private sector innovation and government partnership to sustain U.S. aerospace leadership and drive industry growth.
The 2025 Global Aerospace Summit is happening at a time when an American aviation legend leads the U.S. Chamber’s Board of Directors. H. Ross Perot Jr., who was elected as chair of the U.S. Chamber board earlier this year, is the first person—along with his copilot—to fly a helicopter around the world. Perot had a distinguished career in the U.S. Air Force, where he flew F-4 Phantoms. After his service concluded, he spearheaded the creation of the Air Force Memorial in Arlington, Virginia. He still flies helicopters every week and is a champion of the U.S. aerospace industry.
In a conversation with U.S. Chamber Executive Vice President Neil Bradley on the first day of the 2025 Global Aerospace Summit, Perot shared his insights on U.S. aerospace leadership—and why he believes this $1.3 trillion industry’s best days are still ahead of it.
“I’ve been in global aviation for almost 50 years. It’s a very exciting time to be in it.”
There are parallels between Perot’s experience as a pilot and the state of the modern aerospace industry. When Perot committed to his record-breaking flight in 1982, he knew he had to get ahead of competitors from around the world.
“We put together a team, and within 30 days we took off—30 days later we were done,” Perot recounted. Agility is just as important in modern aviation, and the private sector’s role is to lead innovation in a highly competitive global market.
Perot and Hillwood—his family-owned real estate development company—worked with the city of Fort Worth, Texas and the Federal Aviation Administration to build Alliance Airport, the world’s first industrial airport, located just north of Dallas, Texas. He recounted the experience of constructing the airport, with the FAA projecting it would take 10 years to build. Perot committed to a far shorter window: “It took 18 months from idea to groundbreaking, then 18 months to opening.”
Although the private sector must drive innovation and growth in aerospace, partnership with government remains critical. “Your FAA government partner is your critical partner. Bring the FAA in early, tell them what you’re going to do. The FAA wants to win just like you want to win.”
As chair of the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, Perot seeks to support continued growth and innovation in aerospace. “It’s the U.S. Chamber’s responsibility to make sure we’re working with all the players in this great industry, to make sure the regulations are there, the funding is there… And we’re just getting started.”
“[America has] led the aerospace industry and the space industry globally for decades. We must continue to lead it.” – Chairman, The Perot Companies and Hillwood; Board Chair, U.S. Chamber of Commerce
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Wistron Corp., a Taiwanese company partnering with Nvidia to assemble supercomputers, has officially confirmed that it will establish a huge base in Fort Worth — where it plans to spend hundreds of millions of dollars and hire nearly 900 employees across a pair of sites.
Wistron’s U.S. subsidiary, Wistron Infocomm USA, has quietly been purchasing land and securing tax breaks on the city and county level for the past few months as the company prepares to partner with Nvidia Corp. (Nasdaq: NVDA) on a $500 billion initiative to build artificial intelligence infrastructure. Other companies involved in the effort include Foxconn and TSMC.
Wistron announced Aug. 21 that the two Fort Worth plants represent a $761 million investment — about $100 million more than initially presented during meetings of Fort Worth City Council. The company eventually plans to hire 888 employees, according to city and county presentations.
Wistron purchased two sites for the factories in June and July: the 766,994-square-foot Westport 14 at 14601 Mobility Way, which it purchased from Hillwood, and a 324,598-square-foot building from Trammell Crow. Co. called 35 Eagle at 15200 Heritage Pkwy. Wistron has deemed the former Trammell Crow building as its primary site and allocated $580 million for land acquisition, factory purchase, property improvements and equipment. The company is allocating $181 million for the former Hillwood building. Both sites are expected to open in early 2026.
Wistron is an original design manufacturer — a company that manufactures technology for other businesses. It is considered one of the largest technology manufacturing companies in the world. Originally part of Acer Inc., Wistron spun off in 2001.
Jackie Lai, Wistron’s senior vice president of global manufacturing for American and European operations, outlined the importance of the factories as it continues to expand artificial intelligence-related product capabilities.
“Establishing manufacturing operations in the United States is a critical step in meeting the needs of our customers and advancing our global vision,” he said. “After a thorough evaluation of key factors such as talent availability, robust logistics infrastructure and a vibrant industrial ecosystem, Fort Worth, Texas, emerged as the optimal choice.”
Ross Perot Jr., chairman of Hillwood and Perot Companies, said Wistron’s entry into North Texas is indicative of the larger effort to bring more manufacturing to the U.S.
“Wistron’s decision arrives at an opportune moment when reshoring is redefining America’s industrial future, with AllianceTexas at the forefront of this movement. With a skilled and growing workforce available and backed by strong support from the City of Fort Worth, Denton County, the State of Texas and our private-sector partners, Wistron will find the support and resources it needs to succeed. We look forward to the economic impact and innovation this project will bring,” Perot said in a statement.
It’s a full circle moment for the area. In the late 1990s, Intel Corp. planned to locate a chip manufacturing plant in the area. Intel spent around $65 million to develop the site but suspended construction in 1998 and ultimately decided to sell the 524 acres instead of constructing a $2 billion manufacturing facility.
Other major manufacturing efforts happening in north Fort Worth include MP Materials’ rare earth magnet factory, which secured a $500 million partnership with Apple, part of a larger push by the iPhone maker to produce more in the United States.
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Autonomous trucking in Fort Worth is fueled by infrastructure, regulation, and collaboration. Ian Kinne explains how the Mobility Innovation Zone is paving the way.
Autonomous trucks may make headlines but technology alone is not enough to make it real. You need cities willing to help, infrastructure that supports growth, and safety frameworks that allow these vehicles to scale. Right now, the Mobility Innovation Zone (MIZ) in Fort Worth, Texas, is shaping up to be one of the most advanced autonomous trucking hubs in the country.
We spoke with Ian Kinne, director of logistics and innovation at Hillwood, to learn how the MIZ is working with industry, government, and the community to prepare for the future of freight.
Why Autonomous Trucking Companies Choose Fort Worth
“We’ve worked with just about every single autonomous trucking company now in the industry,” Kinne said. That includes companies like Torc Robotics, Aurora, and Volvo Autonomous Solutions, which all have operations in the area.
He pointed to three major reasons why the MIZ and the larger AllianceTexas region attracts AV freight companies:
- Central location with access to major interstates;
- Consistent year-round weather; and
- Texas’s welcoming regulatory stance.
“The state took a different approach. They said, ‘rather than being closed off to new technology, we want to be on the forefront of this,’” Kinne explained. He was referring to Texas Senate Bill 2205, which opened the door for AV testing starting in 2017.
Safety as the Starting Point
Autonomous freight is often discussed in terms of efficiency and cost savings, but safety is the priority for many companies. “They’re not looking at it as a reduction in labor costs,” Kinne said. “They’re looking at it from just the insurance premiums continuing to rise.” He explained that technologies like forward collision assist and lane-keeping have shown measurable safety improvements, which autonomous systems build on.
Kinne also referenced upcoming legislation that would give the state power to limit unsafe AV operators. “If they’re not operating in a safe manner, the ability to actually deal with that and take those trucks off of the roads, I think that’s absolutely important.”
How Public-Private Partnerships Power Growth
AllianceTexas is a privately led development, but Kinne said collaboration with public agencies is key. “We’ve got about $1.1 billion of public investment here in Alliance and about $16.3 billion of total investments. That’s about a 16-to-1 ratio of private to public.”
The site includes 27,000 acres and supports over 66,000 daily jobs. For Hillwood, autonomy is not just about adopting the next tech trend. “We build four walls and a roof at the end of the day, but we have to work very closely with our city to ensure that the networks, the roadways, the infrastructure to get to those buildings … are in a place where our customers are enabled and encouraged to do what they need to do for their business to be successful.”
What About Trucking Jobs?
Kinne acknowledged the ongoing concern about job displacement. “If you’re a truck driver now, the absolute likelihood is that you will still be a truck driver for as long as you want to be,” he explained, adding that the hub-to-hub model currently being used still requires local drivers on either end.
He also emphasized efforts to train and re-skill workers. “They’ve done a very good job of working with some of the local community colleges as well on educating … the workforce that’s needed for the autonomous vehicles.”
Preparing for the Next Phase
While most autonomous trucks still run on diesel, the Fort Worth region is preparing for an electric future too. “We’ve begun to spend a lot more time with electric trucks,” Kinne said, especially for last-mile and drayage applications. Long-haul routes remain a diesel-dominated space, but Kinne said the groundwork is being laid for broader energy transitions.
With Dallas-Fort Worth projected to grow to 11.5 million residents by 2045, infrastructure pressure will only increase. From nighttime AV operations to network route optimization, Kinne noted that Fort Worth is working to build the future.
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Electronics manufacturer to invest in AI supercomputing facilities totaling nearly 1.1 million square feet in Fort Worth and Denton County, creating more than 800 local jobs
Wistron, one of the world’s largest electronics manufacturers, today announced plans to establish two AI supercomputing facilities at AllianceTexas in Fort Worth. This major investment firmly positions Fort Worth as a key player in the future of advanced technology manufacturing and the boarder reshoring movement, bringing critical manufacturing, logistics and innovation back to the U.S.
Wistron’s new facilities will be located within Hillwood’s AllianceTexas, a 27,000-acre master-planned, mixed-use development in north Fort Worth. The project represents a total investment of $761 million and will create more than 800 full-time jobs. AllianceTexas offers a robust infrastructure platform, resilient power capacity, a skilled workforce pipeline and a proven track record of successful public-private partnerships — making it the ideal launch pad for next-generation manufacturing and logistics.
“As Wistron continues to expand its AI-related product capabilities and align with our strategic roadmap, establishing manufacturing operations in the United States is a critical step in meeting the needs of our customers and advancing our global vision. After a thorough evaluation of key factors such as talent availability, robust logistics infrastructure, and a vibrant industrial ecosystem, Fort Worth, Texas, emerged as the optimal choice,” said Jackie Lai, Senior Vice President of Global Manufacturing for American and European Operations, Wistron.
The site located at 14601 Mobility Way will feature renovations to a 766,994-square-foot building, with an investment of more than $181 million allocated for land acquisition, factory purchase, and real property improvements. The project’s primary site, located at 15200 Heritage Parkway, will undergo renovations to a 324,598-square-foot building. The investment at this location includes more than $580 million allocated for land acquisition, factory purchase, real property improvements, and business personal property. Both sites are expected to be operational by early 2026.
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“It’s Go-Time in Fort Worth, and this investment from Wistron, which will create significant job growth and economic impact in our city, is just more proof. Fort Worth is already at the forefront of aviation, energy and logistics, and we are now positioned to lead in both AI and the future of advanced manufacturing as well.” – Mattie Parker, Fort Worth Mayor
“What an amazing moment for the booming Fort Worth economy. Wistron looked at sites all over the country. In the end, the company decided that Fort Worth is the place to be. And these two new locations not only will create jobs but also help make Fort Worth a leader in AI. The future of manufacturing is going to be built right here in Fort Worth.” – Robert Allen, Fort Worth Economic Development Partnership President and CEO
“Wistron’s $761 million investment and creation of over 800 new jobs marks a pivotal milestone for Denton County. “This project strengthens our role in the rapidly expanding semiconductor supply chain and brings tremendous economic opportunity to our region. We’re proud to support Wistron’s growth and welcome the innovation and high-quality jobs they bring to North Texas.” – Judge Andy Eads, Denton County
“AllianceTexas is proud to welcome Wistron to what is rapidly emerging as North Texas’ next-generation manufacturing and data-services corridor. Wistron’s decision arrives at an opportune moment when reshoring is redefining America’s industrial future, with AllianceTexas at the forefront of this movement. With a skilled and growing workforce available and backed by strong support from the City of Fort Worth, Denton County, the State of Texas, and our private-sector partners, Wistron will find the support and resources it needs to succeed. We look forward to the economic impact and innovation this project will bring.” – Ross Perot, Jr., Chairman of Hillwood and the Perot Companies
“This is an important moment in the industry, as a top global manufacturer in today’s leading sector is establishing operations in what many consider the ‘gold standard’ of premier industrial park, positioned for decades of success. Wistron is an amazing company, and I am so excited to see their hard work come together at these selected sites.” – Trey Fricke, Lee & Associates Commercial Real Estate Managing Principal
About Wistron
Wistron Corporation, a Fortune® Global 500™company, and a global leading technology service provider supplying innovative ICT (information and communications technology) products, service solutions, and systems to top branded companies worldwide. From initial product conceptualization, volume manufacturing, and after-sales repairing to end-of-life products recycling, Wistron supports customers with the products and related services reaching international standards for innovation and quality levels. For more information, please visit: www.wistron.com.
About Fort Worth Economic Development Partnership
The Fort Worth Economic Development Partnership (Fort Worth EDP) is dedicated to positioning Fort Worth as the most vibrant and sustainable city in the U.S. We collaborate with companies, site selectors, and real estate professionals to attract and expand businesses in Fort Worth and the surrounding areas. Our mission is to unite business and civic leaders with local and state partners to achieve this vision. For additional information, please visit fortworthedp.com.
About AllianceTexas
Developed by Hillwood, AllianceTexas is an unparalleled regional success story that has transformed the North Texas economy and connected the area to global industry. Consisting of 27,000 acres, the development is anchored by the world’s first dedicated industrial airport, Perot Field Fort Worth Alliance Airport (AFW), and hosts one of the nation’s premier intermodal hubs. Today, AllianceTexas is home to 590 companies that have created more than 66,000 direct jobs and have approximately 60 million square feet of developed commercial real estate assets. The development’s cumulative impact since 1989 is an estimated $130 billion for the North Texas region. For additional information, please visit www.alliancetexas.com.