The United States is not one market so much as a federation of them. To most European and Asian companies, it first appears as a single economic superpower - one flag, one currency, one language. But cross its borders and you discover a patchwork of states that behave like semi-independent economies. Each has its own sector strengths, incentives, and business cultures.
For a healthcare company, that first office might open in Boston or San Diego; for a fintech, New York feels inevitable; for a semiconductor firm, Phoenix or Austin make more sense. America is less a country and more a continent of clusters.
This chapter maps where foreign companies go - and why. It’s not a travel guide; it’s a strategic atlas. Choose the right ecosystem, and the market will accelerate your growth. Choose wrong, and it will quietly drain your runway.
The Life Science Triangles: From Boston to San Diego
The life-science industry is America’s crown jewel, and foreign entrants instinctively gravitate to its three points of power: Boston–Cambridge, San Francisco Bay Area, and San Diego. Together, they form what Americans call the “Lab Belt.”
Boston–Cambridge is the undisputed global hub for biotech and pharma innovation - a blend of Harvard intellect, MIT engineering, and venture capital urgency. More than 1,000 biotech firms call it home, alongside every major pharmaceutical company and clinical-stage startup imaginable. The city’s density means that what would take a week of meetings elsewhere can happen before lunch here.
San Diego, by contrast, is biotech with better weather - smaller, more collaborative, more device-focused. It’s where European medtech companies come when they want U.S. partnerships without Boston’s overhead. Its proximity to Mexico’s manufacturing corridor also gives it a cost advantage in prototyping and clinical production.
The third vertex, the San Francisco Bay Area, blends biotech and computational science - the intersection of biology, data, and AI. It’s where the future of precision medicine and diagnostics is being coded.
Beyond these three lies North Carolina’s Research Triangle, fast becoming the manufacturing and logistics arm of U.S. biopharma. For foreign firms, Boston is where science starts, San Diego is where it scales, and the Triangle is where it stabilizes.
Semiconductors & Advanced Manufacturing: The CHIPS Arc
A different kind of boom is unfolding across America’s manufacturing landscape - one built on chips, batteries, and automation.
The CHIPS and Science Act unleashed an investment wave that has redrawn the U.S. industrial map. Phoenix, Arizona, leads the charge with TSMC’s multibillion-dollar fabrication plant and a growing ecosystem of suppliers and engineers. Austin and Dallas extend the “chip belt” through Texas, home to design labs, testing facilities, and hardware startups.
To the north, Portland, Oregon, remains a quiet heavyweight in semiconductors and sustainable manufacturing, while Upstate New York - led by Micron’s Syracuse project - is becoming the East Coast’s silicon frontier.
This isn’t just industrial policy; it’s strategic geography. America is repatriating its supply chain, and foreign companies that plug into this arc early will secure long-term relevance in the U.S. tech economy.
Finance & Fintech: The Money Axis
In finance, geography still means gravity.
New York City is the undisputed capital of capital - the seat of global investment banking, hedge funds, and private equity. Every serious financial brand in the world has an office here because every serious deal still passes through here.
For fintech firms, New York’s ecosystem - flanked by regulators, venture funds, and banks - remains unmatched.
Yet the money axis extends beyond Manhattan. Charlotte, North Carolina, has become the back-office engine of U.S. banking, hosting Bank of America, Truist, and countless fintechs. Chicago blends finance with manufacturing and commodities, making it ideal for trading and payments innovation. And Miami - long dismissed as a playground - has reinvented itself as the “capital of capital,” especially for fintechs bridging North and Latin America.
The advice for European firms is simple: open in New York for visibility, operate in Charlotte for cost, and expand in Miami for growth.
Software, AI & Cloud: The Talent Constellation
The American tech constellation still orbits around San Francisco, Seattle, Boston, and New York - but its stars are shifting.
San Francisco Bay Area remains the global symbol of innovation. Every major investor, platform, and engineer passes through its ecosystem. Yet, post-pandemic, Austin, Texas, has emerged as a credible counterweight - the “Silicon Hills,” with lower costs, higher lifestyle appeal, and a surging supply of software and gaming talent.
Seattle retains its dual identity: a software powerhouse (Amazon, Microsoft) and an aerospace titan (Boeing, Blue Origin). Boston adds the academic flavor, blending AI research with biotech.
The newest entrant is Pittsburgh, a robotics and AI hub built around Carnegie Mellon. It’s where algorithms meet engineering - ideal for European industrial tech firms bridging manufacturing and data science.
Aerospace, Space & Defense: The Sky Belt
America’s aerospace map runs from Seattle to Los Angeles, with satellites now forming its digital skyline.
Seattle remains Boeing’s home and the epicenter of commercial aircraft manufacturing, while also hosting a rising “New Space” cluster - dozens of private companies designing satellites, propulsion systems, and launch infrastructure.
Southern California, by contrast, blends heritage and reinvention: legacy primes like Northrop Grumman sit alongside space startups in Hawthorne and El Segundo.
To the east, Huntsville, Alabama, anchors missile systems, Florida’s Space Coast handles launches, and Wichita, Kansas, builds airframes.
For European aerospace entrants, these are not options - they are coordinates.
Energy & Industrial Transition: The Gulf Engine
If your business touches power, you will end up in Houston.
The city is still the global command center for oil and gas, but it’s quietly transforming into the hub of the energy transition. Carbon capture, hydrogen, and clean-tech startups coexist with supermajors.
Nearby, Austin and Dallas add digital energy management and clean-tech software.
For European climate-tech entrants, Houston offers something rare: customers who can scale you.
Automotive & Mobility: The Great Lakes and the Southern Arc
Detroit remains the symbolic and technical capital of the automobile industry. But the geography of mobility is widening.
The new electric-vehicle corridor stretches south through Tennessee, Kentucky, Georgia, and the Carolinas, where manufacturing costs are lower and incentives generous.
Detroit now focuses on R&D and software integration, while the South builds the vehicles.
For European OEMs, it’s wise to split strategy: engineering in Detroit, assembly in the South.
Logistics, E-Commerce & Ports: The Flow Lines
America’s logistics power runs through its arteries of air and sea.
Memphis (FedEx World Hub) and Louisville (UPS Worldport) form the twin hearts of air logistics, while Savannah, Georgia, has become the fastest-growing container port in the country.
Dallas–Fort Worth and Columbus, Ohio, serve as inland distribution hubs for coast-to-coast delivery.
For European and Asian brands, these nodes form the invisible infrastructure that turns e-commerce into experience - the difference between two days and too late.
The City Map: Twenty Gateways into America
Each of these clusters rests on a network of cities that foreign companies return to again and again.
Below is the practical atlas - the 20 U.S. cities most relevant to foreign entrants, and the industries they power.
- Boston, Massachusetts - Life sciences, biotech, pharma.
- San Diego, California - Biotech, medtech, diagnostics.
- San Francisco Bay Area, California - Technology, AI, clean tech.
- Seattle, Washington - Cloud, AI, aerospace.
- Austin, Texas - Tech, gaming, semiconductors.
- Houston, Texas - Energy, renewables, industrial tech.
- New York City, New York - Finance, media, fashion, venture capital.
- Charlotte, North Carolina - Banking, fintech operations.
- Chicago, Illinois - Manufacturing, logistics, finance.
- Detroit, Michigan - Automotive, EV innovation.
- Atlanta, Georgia - Logistics, fintech, film.
- Raleigh–Durham–Chapel Hill, North Carolina - Biomanufacturing, R&D.
- San Antonio, Texas - Cybersecurity, defense.
- Los Angeles, California - Entertainment, design, aerospace.
- Phoenix, Arizona - Semiconductors, manufacturing.
- Denver, Colorado - Climate tech, outdoor brands.
- Miami, Florida - Fintech, trade, Latin America gateway.
- Dallas–Fort Worth, Texas - Logistics, defense, headquarters.
- Philadelphia, Pennsylvania - Cell & gene therapy.
- Portland, Oregon - Semiconductors, sustainability.
Bonus City (upcoming)
21. Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania - AI, Robotics.
Each city offers a different rhythm, regulation, and talent base. For European and Asian entrants, success in the U.S. depends less on which state you choose and more on which ecosystem you plug into.
How to Use the Map
Think of this map not as a choice of geography but as a strategy of adjacency.
You don’t just locate your office - you locate your narrative.
- Go where the buyers are. B2B in Chicago, B2C in New York, R&D in Boston.
- Go where your talent wants to live. Engineers in Austin, designers in LA, scientists in Cambridge.
- Go where your story fits. Sustainability in Denver, precision in Boston, ambition in San Francisco.
The United States rewards proximity: to customers, regulators, and the ideas shaping the next decade.
Choose your city as carefully as you choose your product.
Because in America, location isn’t logistics - it’s leverage.
Wilbert Kragten is the author of Mastering the Marketing Entry in the United States, a guide for international companies expanding into the world’s most competitive market. Drawing on years of advising European firms in the U.S., he blends strategy with wit to reveal how brands can get their product–market fit right - before the market decides for them.