Hello everyone! AITX Team here with more updates this week.
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SxSW Events for the AI Community
In this week’s edition you’re getting:
5 Upcoming Events
3 AI Community Stories
So let’s jump in!
UPCOMING EVENTS
When: Saturday March 28 | 10:00 AM to-5:00 PM CST
Where: Austin 111 Congress Ave., Austin, TX 78701, United States · Austin, TX
What: We’re hosting the Robotics & Edge Inference Conference in March or April 2026. From the smallest microcontrollers to the most advanced Jetson-class modules, modern robots now run perception and policy on-device. We’ll go end-to-end—from compilers & runtimes (TensorRT, TVM, ONNX Runtime) and ROS 2/Isaac dataflow, to multi-sensor 3D perception & state estimation, to navigation and diffusion policies for manipulation. We’ll also showcase demos from top robotics companies in Austin.
When: Wednesday, March 18 | 6:00 PM - 8:00 PM CST
Where: Spaces Downtown Greenstreet, Houston, TX
What: Rise of AX & Human Center AI - Roger Rohatgi - Chai - AI Factory + IxDA - Speaker Series - Agentic AI UI/UX Consumer Tech Community
When: Saturday, March 14 | 6:00 PM - 10:00 PM CST
What: The focus is on practical adoption, real operational insight, and thoughtful discussion about what scales responsibly in legal technology.
When: Monday, March 16 | 9:45 AM - 12:00 PM
Where: Antler VC Austin, Texas
What: Join Apify and Overdrive + Leadspicker for a morning of hands-on AI talks and live demos during SXSW week.
We're bringing together builders, founders, and engineers to explore how AI agents and automation are changing the way businesses operate.
When: Thursday, March 26 | 5:30 PM - 8:00 PM CST
Where: Antler VC Austin, Texas
What: Session will cover:
OpenClaw x Apify: combining computer-use agents with web scraping and automation at scale
How to make money building and selling secure
OpenClaw agents to business clients
Architecting production infrastructure that enterprises can trust The business model: pricing, packaging, and delivering OpenClaw solutions
The latest on the applied AI infrastructure OpenTeams is incubating
Lessons learned from real production deployments
COMMUNITY STORIES
Coherent, a Sherman-based manufacturer of optical technology, has signed a $2 billion multi-year partnership with AI leader Nvidia to advance light-based data exchange. The collaboration will create new high-paying AI jobs in Sherman, Texas, further cementing the region's emergence as the "Silicon Prairie." Mayor Shawn Teamann hailed the announcement as proof that Sherman is at the heart of Texas's advanced technology revolution.
Why it matters: This partnership demonstrates the critical intersection of optical technology and AI development, highlighting how hardware innovations are enabling the next generation of artificial intelligence applications.
Need to know:
Coherent and Nvidia announced a $2 billion multi-year partnership focused on optical technology for AI applications
Coherent manufactures vixel technology that uses light arrays and spectrums to visualize objects, similar to iPhone facial recognition systems
The partnership will bring new high-paying AI jobs to Sherman, Texas, positioning the city as a hub in the emerging "Silicon Prairie"
Microsoft is in advanced negotiations to lease hundreds of megawatts of data center capacity at an AI campus in Abilene, Texas, according to The Information. This massive expansion would significantly strengthen Texas's position as a major hub for AI computing infrastructure and reflects the tech giant's aggressive push to scale its AI capabilities.
Why it matters: As AI technology demand surges, Microsoft's major infrastructure investment signals the expanding market opportunity for AI-focused solutions and security technologies like those AITX provides for protecting critical data center facilities.
Need to know:
Microsoft is negotiating to lease hundreds of megawatts of capacity at an AI-focused campus in Abilene, Texas
The deal would represent a significant expansion of Texas's data center infrastructure and AI computing capabilities
This move underscores the massive capital investments tech giants are making to support growing AI computational demands
Arm just announced a $71 million campus expansion in Austin, backed by a $4.1 million grant from the Texas Semiconductor Innovation Fund. The expansion adds a new semiconductor lab with advanced failure-analysis capabilities and is expected to create over 320 high-skilled jobs in the region.
Why it matters: Austin is cementing itself as a serious hub for AI-driven chip design, and one of the world's most important semiconductor companies just put real money behind that thesis.
Need to know:
Texas Gov. Greg Abbott signed the Texas CHIPS Act in 2023, allocating nearly $700 million statewide for semiconductor R&D, manufacturing, and workforce development. Arm's Austin expansion is a direct product of that strategy.
Arm is partnering with Texas State Technical College to build hands-on training programs aligned with real semiconductor and AI industry needs, creating a pipeline from classroom to engineering lab.
The "one Texas" approach means this isn't just an Austin story. Houston, Dallas-Fort Worth, and Abilene all play roles in Arm's broader statewide vision spanning data centers, workforce programs, and research.
That’s all for now, folks!
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