Advanced Manufacturing

Silicon Mountain

Dubbed Silicon Mountain, Colorado Springs is one of the fastest-growing tech hubs in the nation. The city’s lower cost of living has drawn tech companies and startups to expand into the region, taking advantage of a business-friendly environment, skilled workforce, and strong economy.

In 2022, Zivaro, an information technology company serving government and national defense partners, announced its expansion to Colorado Springs, creating more than 300 new jobs at an annual average wage of $165,076. In the same period, semiconductor manufacturer Microchip Technology announced an $880 million planned investment in the region, creating more than 400 well-paying jobs and $1.4 billion in capital investment. Colorado Springs also offers well-developed infrastructure, including a robust fiber-optic network delivering high-speed internet access to businesses citywide.

For businesses evaluating where to build next, these aren’t isolated wins — they’re proof of a market where investment compounds, and where the infrastructure is already in place to support what comes after.

Revitalizing the Semiconductor Industry and Manufacturing

Colorado Springs has a large concentration of semiconductor and hardware and manufacturing activity, presenting strong opportunities for growth. In 2022, the Colorado Springs semiconductor industry generated $1.6 billion for the city’s economy, holding a 3.4% share of the region’s total GRP and 2.4% of national GDP.

That same year, the city’s Hardware and Manufacturing industry contributed $0.2 billion in total GDP to the local economy and holds a 0.5% share of total GDP. With a labor pool of more than 140,000, the industry is projected to grow 5.4% over the next five years.

Hardware and manufacturing companies here benefit from a reliable supply chain and a growing labor pool fed by the region’s postsecondary institutions, which produce a strong pipeline of industry-related degrees. Investors also gain access to lower-than-average tax rates, state and local incentives, and regional support — a healthy business environment companies can build a long-term investment strategy around.

The CHIPS & Science Act has played a key role in reshoring manufacturing jobs to the U.S. and strengthening supply chain reliability. Taking advantage of the Act, Entegris, a global supplier of electronic materials for the semiconductor and high-tech industries, announced its expansion into Colorado Springs with a $600 million investment in a manufacturing center of excellence, creating 600 local jobs.

A report by McKinsey & Company found the U.S. economy lost roughly a quarter-trillion dollars in 2021 due to semiconductor shortages, underscoring how critical the sector is to economic security. Semiconductors rank among the United States’ top five exports, totaling $193 billion in 2019, making this a sector where businesses aren’t just choosing a location, they’re choosing to be part of the industry’s long-term national significance.

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Medical Equipment & Supplies Manufacturing in Colorado Springs

Colorado Springs offers a strong foundation for medical equipment and supplies manufacturing, combining a skilled workforce, robust infrastructure, and strategic location. The industry includes 34 establishments employing more than 1,100 people, with real momentum: projected job growth is 6.6% over the next five years. Local firms specialize in surgical instruments, medical and dental devices, and advanced materials that support both healthcare and sports medicine sectors.

With access to multiple airports, lower operating costs, and support from top-tier institutions like the University of Colorado Colorado Springs and the Hybl Sports Medicine and Performance Center, the region offers exceptional opportunities for innovation and expansion. Colorado Springs’ thriving medtech ecosystem, bolstered by major employers such as InnovaFlex Foundry, DePuy Synthes, and UCHealth, positions it as a prime destination for investment and growth — a market where companies can build something meaningful in a sector defined by long-term national significance.

Investment Potential

Colorado Springs’ Medical Equipment and Supplies Manufacturing industry is made up of 34 establishments that support the local market. The industry employs 1,121 people, and these jobs are projected to grow by 6.6% in the next five years, making this a sector still on the rise.

The Medical Equipment and supplies Manufacturing includes the following subsectors:

Surgical and medical instruments comprise of anesthesia apparatuses, orthopedic instruments, optical diagnostic apparatuses, blood transfusion devices, syringes, hypodermic needles, and catheters.

Surgical appliances and supplies: Include artificial joints and limbs, stents, orthopedic appliances, surgical dressings, disposable surgical drapes, hydrotherapy appliances, surgical kits, rubber medical and surgical gloves, and wheelchairs.

Dental equipment and supplies: Include equipment, instruments, and supplies used by dentists, dental hygienists, and laboratories.  Specific products include dental hand instruments, plaster, drills, amalgams, cements, sterilizers, and dental chairs.

The city is home to five military bases and great outdoor venues such as the U.S. Olympic & Paralympic Training Center, creating a natural habitat for a thriving sports medicine industry. The city has well-established infrastructure, lower utility rates, relatively lower tax rates, and a strong labor pool which makes Colorado Springs ideal for investment.

Proximity to multiple airports provides access to major cities and international destinations, supporting trade with domestic and global markets alike. Colorado Springs also offers strong regional support and existing industrial buildings suited to small and mid-sized companies, ready inventory that gives businesses room to grow.

Workforce

Colorado Springs has a strong concentration of Medical Equipment and Supplies industry activity, with a higher concentration than the national and state average. In 2021, the sector contributed $0.2 billion to the city’s economy and held a 0.5% industry share of the city’s total GDP representing 0.3% of the national GDP.

The sector draws from an existing labor pool of 108,578, expected to grow 2.9% over the next five years, with projected double-digit growth in key occupations including dental lab technicians, industrial engineers, and medical appliance technicians.

A reputation for a highly skilled talent pipeline, transferable talent from related industries, and significantly lower wages are pull factors that have already influenced major investors, including InnovaFlex Foundry, DePuy Synthes, and UCHealth, to expand into the Pikes Peak region

Colorado Springs’ institutions of higher learning are among the best in the nation, producing a highly skilled workforce built to support this industry. The University of Colorado Colorado Springs offers technical programs in sports medicine, equipping students with diverse skills to support design and technical service contractors. The Hybl Sports Medicine and Performance Center serves as a hub for cutting-edge sports medicine and performance research, along with clinical, testing, and counseling services for elite athletes. This creates a credible, specialized asset few competing markets can claim.

Sports Medicine, Prosthetics, and Orthotics

Colorado Springs holds a competitive advantage in key areas including Surgical Appliances and Supplies Manufacturing and Offices of Other Health Practitioners, and a higher concentration of industry employment compared to the national average.

Employment in Sports Medicine, Prosthetics, and Orthotics is projected to grow substantially, with physical therapists, athletic trainers, orthotists, and prosthetists jobs estimated to increase 17% between 2021 and 2031, far outpacing the average growth rate across all occupations.

The city’s establishments of independent health practitioners are highly specialized, performing well above Colorado and the U.S. average. This segment employs over 6,000 people with an average wage of $46,570. The Surgical Appliances and Supplies Manufacturing sector also ranks highly employing 928 workers at an average wage of $69, 572.

Together, these numbers point to real, underlying potential in specialty areas like sports equipment and manufacturing — the kind of growth trajectory that makes Colorado Springs a market businesses can confidently build on.

Strong and Diverse Industry Offerings

Colorado Springs has a robust Hardware and Springs Manufacturing industry with strong growth potential in industrial hardware, and spring and wire products. The city’s industry clusters present opportunities for further growth, backed by postsecondary institutions producing a highly skilled, educated workforce that keeps the talent pool reliable and deep. Colorado Springs also offers strong regional support for policy and promotion, giving companies confidence beyond the numbers alone.

Estimations hold that local businesses would consume up to 30% of the city’s industry products. By 2023, there were 54 Hardware and Springs Manufacturing establishments in the region, creating clear room for investment. The city’s lower wages and incentives have inspired companies such as dvault, Springs Fabrication, and WCM Industries, to launch in Colorado Springs. The sector has grown 7.0% annually here over the past decade, well outpacing the national rate of 1.3%, a track record of real, measurable momentum.

Hardware Manufacturing focuses on the production of hinges, handles, keys, and locks, among others. Springs and Wire manufacturing engages in the production of springs from purchased wire.

Industry Clusters

Home to five military installations and more than 200 companies that support critical missions across commercial and government sectors, Colorado Springs presents great opportunities for investment in Hardware and Springs Manufacturing. The city’s military, aerospace, medical supplies and equipment and Information Technology sectors provide a ready, built-in market for industry output.

Primary metal and fabricated metal products were ranked as top exports from Colorado to Canada and Mexico, under the new United States-Mexico-Canada Agreement (USMCA) in 2018. Combined, these products generated $376.8 million in exports revenue that year.

In 2021, Colorado Springs’ Hardware and Springs Manufacturing industry generated $0.2 billion in GDP for the city’s economy, representing a 0.5% share of local GDP and 0.2% of national GDP, with 142,471 people employed in the sector that year.

Colorado Springs holds a very high concentration of hardware and springs manufacturing activity, leaving clear room for continued growth. The industry’s subsector forecasts point to real, measurable momentum ahead: Machine Shops, Turned Product, and Screw, Nut, and Bolt Manufacturing leads all subsectors with an 8.5% projected job growth rate, while Boiler, Tank, and Shipping Container Manufacturing is projected to grow 6.2% over the next five years, employing 668 people at an average annual wage of $57,592.

Hardware, Spring, and Wire Product Manufacturing

The Hardware Manufacturing subsector leads the pack, employing 619 people at an average wage of $72,373, with growth projected at 2.5% over the next five years. The Spring and Wire Product Manufacturing subsector is projected to grow at the same rate, currently employing 151 workers at an average annual wage of $65,826.

Together, a strong labor pool, available industrial buildings for expansion, lower wages, and dense industry clusters add up to a strong for investment.

Making Investments Go Further

The following is an overview. To learn more, review our Incentives & Taxes page or contact a member of our economic development team to discuss options specific to your plans.

Commercial Aeronautical Zone

Aeronautical businesses can realize significant incentives within the Commercial Aeronautical Zone at the Colorado Springs Airport. All local sales and use taxes, with some exemptions, are abated for companies operating within the zone.

Pikes Peak Enterprise Zone

Tax credits are available to businesses operating in the Pikes Peak Enterprise Zone.

Manufacturing and Mining Equipment: State and county sales tax exemptions for purchases of manufacturing machinery or machine tools and parts.

Investment: 3% Colorado income tax credit for investments in equipment used in the zone for at least one year.

Job Growth: $1,100 Colorado income tax credit for each new job created above the maximum number employed in the prior tax year.

Employer-Sponsored Health Insurance: Two-year credit of $1,000 ($2,000 total) for each employee insured under an employer-sponsored health insurance program.

Research & Development: 3% of R&D expenditures above and beyond the average of the last two years’ R&D expenditures.

Rehabilitation of Vacant Buildings: 25% credit or rehabilitation costs (up to $50,000) to update buildings at least 20 years old and vacant for two years.

Job Training: 12% credit of the training investment in a job training program conducted on site or off site to improve employee skills.

CHIPS Zone

Eligible semiconductor companies operating in the CHIPS Zones may qualify for multiple state income and tax credits that support job creation, capital investment, and research and development. For more information, click here.

New employees: $1,100 or more per net new employee. Businesses can earn more tax credits if the business is an agricultural processor or is in an enhanced rural enterprise zone.

Research & development: 3% of an increase in research and development expenses compared to what the business spent the prior two years.

Property: 3% of business personal property investment.

Job training: 12% tax credit of the total investment made in a qualified job training program.

Commercial vehicles: 1.5% tax credit on commercial truck, truck tractor, tractor, or semitrailer with a gross vehicle weight rating of fifty-four thousand pounds or greater that is model year 2010 or newer and is designated as Class A personal property.

Sales Tax Exemptions

Standard incentives apply to construction materials, business personal property, and large purchases of manufacturing equipment.

Colorado Sales & Use Tax Exemption on Aircraft and Aircraft Parts

Aircraft used in interstate commerce by a commercial airline and parts permanently affixed to aircraft are exempt from state sales and use tax. Included are fuselage parts, parts for aircraft engines, seats permanently affixed to the aircraft, aircraft paint and other materials.

Aviation Development Zone Tax Credit

The Colorado Springs Airport is a state-recognized Aviation Development Zone. Businesses within this zone, and involved in aircraft manufacturing or maintenance, may qualify for a state income tax credit of $1,200 per net new full-time employee.

A Force to be Reckoned With

Top-notch educational institutions strengthen Colorado Springs’ job training and upskilling initiatives, ensuring the region’s 11,600-plus manufacturing workforce has the capacity to keep innovating toward the next breakthrough.

Pikes Peak State College and the University of Colorado Colorado Springs both offer extensive engineering courses, certificates, and degrees in basic manufacturing, advanced manufacturing, machining, robotics, and automation — a credentialed pipeline companies can build a workforce strategy around. Technology is woven throughout education in Colorado Springs, a city known for its tech-savvy talent.

The MiLL in Colorado Springs, short for Manufacturing Industry Learning Lab, is empowering the next generation of industry leaders through a partnership between school districts, professionals, and industry partners. High school, college, military, and industry participants learn lean manufacturing using the latest woods technology and an industry-driven curriculum, with partners including MICRO JIG, Kreg, and Stiles. This makes for a hands-on training model that’s proof of long-term workforce planning.

Transitioning and veteran military represent a significant share of local residents and a unique driver behind the Colorado Springs workforce. Approximately 84,000 veterans call the region home, with 400-plus military separations each month feeding directly into the labor pool. Many choose to build their next chapter here, while others once stationed locally find their way back, creating a self-renewing talent source that gives companies an edge no other market can replicate at this scale. What they bring is consistent: discipline, technical skill, and a work ethic businesses can count on.