Austin, Texas, may be the home of one of the most talked-about college football teams in the country, but it’s also home to more than 3,000 technological companies, including Dell, IBM and Intel. What began with the innovations of Advanced Micro Devices and Motorola, among others, has resulted in what the Austin Chamber of Commerce calls the transformation of Austin “from sleepy college town to ‘technopolis.’” In other words, Austin has effectively established an international name for itself as one of the best locations in the world for technological companies large and small.

Although many of these corporations regularly make the headlines with various additions and innovations, two recent developments of note concern a couple of the most renown electronics companies in the world: Samsung Electronics Co. and AT&T.

Samsung, the extensive Korean corporation responsible for many innovations in advanced technology, finance and medicine, among other areas, recently announced one of its two semiconductor fabrication plants at the Samsung Austin Semiconductor is receiving an upgrade. The eight-inch semiconductor fabrication plant, Fab 1, closed down late last year and is now under construction to become part of Fab 2, the newer, 12-inch fabrication facility.

“Fab 1 is being converted to become part of the 12-inch fab, and we’re in the process of making that conversion now,” said Bill Cryer, Samsung Austin Semiconductor spokesman. “The eight-inch facility will become what we call the copper manufacturing line. Copper goes into the flash memory chips that we manufacture here, but since copper is a contaminate, it has to be in a separate facility.”

The new facility is expected to open in early summer 2010, while Fab 2 continues to operate, as usual.

Samsung’s facilities in Austin, which are among the largest single investments in the United States by a foreign company at a resounding $3.5-$4 billion, are the only facilities outside of South Korea that manufacturer the chips.

AT&T also recently made a large investment in the home of the Longhorns. The Dallas-based mega-corporation with nearly 300,000 employees worldwide expanded its Northwest Austin research and development facility by opening a new lab in September 2009. According to the Chamber, “the new lab [is] designed to test and certify wireless devices being developed for compatibility, data performance and audio quality for AT&T’s advanced network.”

It’s also the only lab in the country focusing on “machine-to-machine” products, or devices used in the business space, according to AT&T spokesman Mike Barger.

“AT&T is bringing innovation to Austin,” said Huitao Liu, director of new technology, product development and engineering. “For instance, there’s a wireless certification lab in this facility, so nearly every device that is AT&T-branded goes through the wireless certification lab in this location. It’s a new lab and a new team, and we’re working on cutting-edge technologies, so that’s very exciting.”

Of all the U.S. cities electronics giants like Samsung and AT&T could’ve chosen to house such important parts of their businesses, what made Austin stand out? According to Cryer and Liu, the state capitol is a great location primarily because of the statistically impressive recruiting options and the increasingly vast technological community in and around the city.

“One reason [Samsung chose Austin] was because Austin has the University of Texas at Austin, and it’s near Texas A&M in College Station,” Cryer said. “There are a number of large universities in the area with large engineering schools, and they provide a lot of our workforce.”

Liu agreed, “There are lots of highly qualified [technological professionals] and engineers in this area, and that really helped when I started building up a team. It really creates an overall environment and promotes creativity, and that jives with Austin really well.”

The other significant reason so many electronics companies invest in Austin is what Cryer calls “the biggest reason” for Samsung.

“When Samsung first came to Austin in 1996, there was a center of semiconductor manufacturing,” he said. “You had a cluster of semiconductor companies, which meant that you also had all of the support facilities for a large, highly technical manufacturing facility.”

AT&T also recognizes the value of the technological community in Austin, according to Liu.

“It’s a great working environment for technology and engineering companies,” he said. “There are a lot of [them] in this area – lots of larger companies like Dell and smaller startup companies, as well. Austin is a very technologically savvy city, and it’s a huge investment from the AT&T perspective to build on this lab.”

The benefit, however, goes both ways. Corporations like Samsung and AT&T contribute significantly to Austin by creating jobs for the city’s “technologically savvy” population, stimulating the economy with their investments and of course, giving Austin a claim to fame that doesn’t involve football. And thanks to them and their peers, Austin is definitely living up to its reputation as not just a college town, but as a technopolis.