North Carolina is a major center for telecommunications, networking and software development with 2,300 IT companies employing more than 200,000 highly skilled workers.
North Carolina has been recognized for being:
- #1 producer of fiber optic cable in the world.
- 10th best state for using digital technology.
- Home to the top five telecommunication centers in the world.
- Home to approximately 15% of the nation’s networking engineers.
- The creator of over 15% of the world’s visual technologies.
- Recipient of 6,719 recent patents granted to 228 North Carolina companies, universities and individuals in our state – almost double the national average.
IBM has its largest IT presence in the world in North Carolina. Cisco's second largest campus is in Research Triangle Park, and Microsoft's second largest domestic presence is in Charlotte. Other major players that have been drawn by North Carolina’s knowledge workers are:
- Cree
- CipherOptics
- Dell
- Google
- Lenovo
- Peopleclick
- Red Hat
- RF MicroDevices
- SAS
Specialized resources provide an atmosphere for innovation including:
For more information, download the 
North Carolina Information and Communication Technologies Brochure.