Stratospheric recognition

3 Austin companies make Forbes list of best employers in Texas

Google Sailboat Building downtown Austin

Though based in Mountain View, California, Google has a major corporate hub in Austin.

Rendering courtesy of Steelblue/Trammell Crow

A new list from Forbes and Statista places three Austin-based companies among the state’s major employers, both those based in Texas and those with a significant presence here. Perhaps unsurprisingly, all three were tech companies, including Google (No. 14), Dell Technologies (No. 29), and NXP Semiconductors (No. 30).

NASA in Houston took home the No. 1 title.

To come up with their ranking, Forbes and Statista surveyed about 70,000 Americans working at employers in the U.S. with at least 500 employees each. The final list features 1,382 highly recommended employers in the 50 states and the District of Columbia.

Here are the 30 best large employers in Texas, as determined by Forbes and Statista.

Austin area

No. 14 Google (based in Mountain View, California; major corporate hub in Austin)
No. 29 Dell Technologies, based in Round Rock
No. 30 NXP Semiconductors (based in the Netherlands; major corporate hub in Austin)

Houston area

No. 1 NASA (based in Washington, D.C.; Johnson Space Center in Clear Lake)
No. 2 University of Texas Health Science Center at Houston
No. 3 Oceaneering International, based in Houston
No. 4 MD Anderson Cancer Center, based in Houston
No. 11 Bechtel (based in Reston, Virginia; major corporate hub in Houston)
No. 13 Clear Creek ISD, based in League City
No. 20 Air Liquide, based in Houston
No. 23 Kelsey-Seybold Clinic, based in Pearland
No. 25 Houston Methodist, based in Houston

Dallas-Fort Worth

No. 7 University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center in Dallas
No. 8 Capital One (based in Richmond, Virginia; major corporate hub in Plano)
No. 16 University of Texas at Dallas
No. 17 Southwest Airlines, based in Dallas
No. 18 Lewisville ISD, based in Lewisville
No. 19 GM Financial, based in Fort Worth
No. 21 City of Plano
No. 22 Fidelity Investments (based in Boston; major corporate hub in Westlake)
No. 28 Jordan Health Services, based in Addison

San Antonio

No. 5 University of Texas at San Antonio
No. 9 H-E-B (based in San Antonio; more than 300 stores in Texas)
No. 12 University of Texas Health Science Center at San Antonio

Throughout Texas

No. 6 IKEA (based in Sweden; five stores in Texas)
No. 10 Costco (based in Issaquah, Washington; 35 stores in Texas)
No. 15 Hyatt (based in Chicago; hotels throughout Texas)
No. 24 Microsoft (based in Redmond, Washington; offices in Austin, Dallas, Friendswood, Frisco, Houston, San Antonio, and The Woodlands)
No. 26 Sherwin-Williams (based in Cleveland; more than 300 stores in Texas)

rankings lists

Self-driving Roller Coaster

More self-driving cars expected to roll out in Austin for 2025

Photo courtesy of Waymo via KVUE

Various brands offering self-driving cars are on-and-off in Austin.

Expect to see more self-driving rideshare vehicles, also known as robotaxis, on Austin roads next year.

Robotaxi company Waymo, which you may have already seen on Austin's roads, is partnering with Uber. At some point next year, customers will be able to use the Uber app to call a self-driving ride.

Austin-based company Avride is in the testing phase and plans to roll out its robotaxis next year.

Currently, Volkswagen ADMT and Amazon's Zoox are in the testing phase in Austin, while Hyundai's Motional is in the mapping phase.

Last year, robotaxi company Cruise paused operations in Austin after the California Department of Motor Vehicles revoked the company's permits to operate driverless vehicles in the state. And last week, General Motors said it would no longer fund the company because of the time and resources needed.

This way of getting around has come with its safety concerns and issues. The city is tracking those concerns. According to the Transportation Department, the problems span from blocking the roads and parking in front of people's homes for weeks with lights beaming through their windows, to actual wrecks.

Since July 2023, robotaxis have been involved in 75 incidents. Only 21 of those incidents happened in 2024. It's important to note that Cruise has not been operating in Austin this year.

Since July 2023, driverless rideshare vehicles have been involved in 22 near collisions, eight collisions and seven instances where driverless taxis ignored directions from the Austin Police Department (APD).

According to the data, at least four of those Austin police incidents happened in recent months. The issues varied from driving through police checkpoints, to malfunctioning and getting stuck at an APD road closure near pedestrians, causing safety concerns.

A Waymo spokesperson said their vehicles have gesture recognition capabilities, which they've been training APD officers on using.

As the report shows, sometimes it does not work and Waymo said it is working to improve that. The spokesperson said that as of just last week, Waymo's First Responder Program has been independently verified by TÜV SÜD, making Waymo the first autonomous vehicle (AV) company to receive third-party validation for our emergency response protocols. They also said the data to date indicates the Waymo Driver is already reducing traffic injuries and fatalities in the places where the company currently operates.

Read the full story and watch the video at KVUE.com.

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