IBM and Tech Parks Arizona marked the 40th year since Big Blue came to Tucson with an event Friday that showcased some of the companyโs latest technologies.
In 1978, IBM broke ground on a new home for its storage-solutions division on 1,345 acres of land it purchased in southeast Tucson.
By the mid-1980s, about 5,000 IBM workers were developing and manufacturing tape and other computer storage products.
In the mid-1980s, IBM employed about 5,000 workers at its site at 9000 S. Rita Road. The site was later acquired by the University of Arizona.
In 1998, IBM moved the manufacturing part of the operation to San Jose, California, leaving design and development operations in Tucson.
The University of Arizona acquired the property at 9000 S. Rita Road in 1994 and named it the UA Science and Technology Park.
IBM remains a major high-tech employer in Southern Arizona.
Though the company doesnโt release employee counts, IBM reported about 1,050 employees in 2015, down from more than 1,700 in 2005, as part of a travel-reduction survey conducted by the Pima Association of Governments.
As part of Fridayโs commemoration at the Tech Park, Calline Sanchez, Tucson site leader for IBM, provided an overview and update of IBMโs local operation.
Though IBMโs local workforce has shrunk considerably, Tucson remains one of the companyโs major innovation hubs for areas including data storage and retrieval, cloud computing, cybersecurity and artificial intelligence.
