Visa, the global payments technology company, has chosen Austin as the home of its new Global IT Center. The Center will be located in 175,000-square-feet of leased office space. Capital investment is $27 million and the project will create 794 jobs over the next five years. Visa cited Austin’s vibrant technology community and business-friendly climate, as well as a growing payments technology hub with a mix of established companies and new emerging start-ups, along with top technical talent.

Union Pacific has opened a new information technology center in Austin, Texas, bringing the railroad closer to the top talent located in one of the country's hottest technology hubs. The new information technology office in northwest Austin will serve as a software development and engineering R&D center for Union Pacific's technology group and employ more than 40 programmers and engineers.

The office will serve as an innovation hub for R/GA’s rapidly expanding mobile and social business capabilities. R/GA, based in New York, plans to build out the firm’s technology group and tapping into the deep pool of technical talent in Austin. The office, located in the historic Littlefield Building on the corner of 6th and Congress Streets in downtown Austin, is currently home to 15 employees and is aiming to grow to between 30 and 50 by the end of 2013.

HID Global, a worldwide leader in secure identity solutions, will combine its manufacturing and distribution operations in North America and create a new, Genuine HID Operations Center for North America in Austin. This new location will include construction of a 200,000 SF operations center on approximately 20 acres, with a total capital investment of $35 million. The project will create 276 jobs over the next 10 years. The facility will include a high-tech manufacturing operation that will produce HID Global’s secure identity products for enterprise and government customers.

New York-based Yodle’s first foothold in Austin came with the acquisition of ProfitFuel last year. Finding Austin to be a city is in sync with the company culture – high energy, positive, can-do and hard working – Yodle has taken a new 100,000 square foot space in North Austin to accommodate the current 375 Austin employees and allow them grow to more than 750 in Austin.

SecureNet Payment Systems, a leader in payment processing technology based in Rockville, MD, has opened a new technology and innovation center in Austin. SecureNet is expanding its footprint to house its growing staff, attract top talent and continue its close collaboration with clients in providing the most innovative single source/multi-channel solutions in the payments industry. The rapidly growing company plans to hire as many as 200 new employees within the next 12 months.

General Motors has selected Austin for the creation of an IT Innovation Center, creating 500 jobs. Austin will be home to the first of several new IT Innovation Centers in the United States intended to drive breakthrough ideas into GM vehicles and business processes globally. Austin’s education and university system was a driving factor for the project as IT talent was a key point of consideration. The new center will provide expertise developing new information technology to support advanced vehicle development.

Seattle-based Tableau Software, the global leader in rapid-fire business intelligence software, has opened an office in Austin. Tableau will base its professional services practice for North America out of the Austin city center location and is hiring developer, sales and operations talent as well. It plans to have capacity for more than 150 employees.

The funds will be used to renovate its existing fabrication operations to meet the rapidly growing demands for logic products and accommodate full System LSI production. Samsung's latest investment marks one of the largest single foreign investments ever made in the state of Texas. Samsung's total investment in Austin since 1996 now exceeds $13 billion. Samsung currently employs 3,000 workers in Austin and this expansion will provide an additional 2,500 jobs for construction workers and equipment vendors.

Atlantic Coast Polymers, a U.S.-owned and operated manufacturer of polymers whose corporate offices are located in Austin, has recently expanded their operations with a new manufacturing facility in Lockhart. Given the current opportunities and favorable economic conditions in Central Texas in key industries, including oil & gas and wastewater treatment, the new development will be able to create up to 25 new jobs. ACP’s goal is to supply the wastewater treatment industry with consistently superior polymers, innovative problem solving technical support, and reliable and rapid product delivery.

Lumeris, a rapidly emerging healthcare technology company based in St. Louis, has chosen Austin to build a software engineering and innovation center. Lumeris has immediate requirements for 100 software engineers, project managers and consultants and major expansion plans in 2013 and beyond.

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The Washington, D.C.-based Company will invest $8.1 million in capital expenditures to expand services provided by its Austin-based Crimson division, creating more than 200 jobs with an average salary of $90,000. The Advisory Board Company is a global research, technology and consulting and firm partnering with 125,000 leaders in 3,200 organizations across health care and higher education. Its Crimson division in Austin currently supports more than 500 individual hospitals and 300,000 physicians. State and local incentives, including $500,000 from the Texas Enterprise Fund, will be used to expand Crimson’s software development and technical support services infrastructure in Austin.