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From 6 to 11 October 2025, the Luxembourg Chamber of Commerce, in close cooperation with the Luxembourg Trade & Investment Office (LTIO) San Francisco, the Ministry of Foreign and European Affairs, the Ministry of the Economy, the Embassy of Luxembourg in Washington D.C. and Luxinnovation, led a Trade Mission to Texas and California. The mission gathered 61 participants, including 41 company representatives from 32 companies, alongside a strong institutional delegation.
Texas has increasingly become a key destination for tech giants relocating their headquarters and operations, attracted by its favourable business climate. The State is also experiencing strong tailwinds in the defence and aerospace sectors: 18 of the 20 largest U.S. aerospace manufacturers have established major operations there. The Lone Star State is also the top recipient of defence spending in the country (USD 71.6 bn). Overall, Texas is widely recognised as the second manufacturing powerhouse in the U.S., accounting for 10% of the country’s total manufacturing GDP.
As for California, its Silicon Valley is home to many of the world’s leading tech and IT companies, which are increasingly exploring links between AI and national security, thereby strengthening their ties with the defence industry. The State ranks 3rd nationwide in defence spending with USD 60.8 billion (as of 2023) and is the largest manufacturing state.
The business delegation featured leading Luxembourg companies and startups in the domains of defence and space, as well as other major industrial players. The strong presence of startups was the result of a collaboration with the Luxembourg City Incubator and the University of Luxembourg’s Accelerator. The latter also conducted their U.S. immersion trip at the same time.
The programme in Austin started with a meeting at the Center of Gravity for Entrepreneurs in Texas: Capital Factory. The delegation had the opportunity to interact with the co-founder of Capital Factory and representatives of leading defence institutions. In the afternoon, a meeting with Opportunity Austin allowed Luxembourg companies to understand business opportunities in the region and the impressive economic development Austin witnessed over the last decade. Defence and space companies also engaged with the Executive Director of the National Security Innovation Council and had the opportunity to present their innovative solutions.
On Wednesday, the delegation visited Oracle’s global headquarters, to explore the company’s advancing secure cloud and data solutions with direct applications for defence and space. A productive meeting with the Acting Director for the Austin Greater area at Plug & Play Cedar Park allowed the delegation to gain insights into the close-knit ecosystem linking the startup community and major defence contractors.
The trade mission continued on the West coast in San Francisco where the programme revolved around breakthrough technologies. The visit of Salesforce headquarters focused on presenting latest AI trends and applications. The delegation also headed to Microsoft Silicon Valley campus where the meetings centered on innovative space and sustainability solutions.
Furthermore, a defence roundtable was held at Stanford in collaboration with RedwireSpace that featured representatives of key U.S. institutions in the field of space and defence. Meanwhile, startups received practical advice on how to expand their US footprint through a meeting with Start2Group. The day concluded with an official networking reception that notably included local representatives of major institutions as well as investors from the network of the LTIO San Francisco.
The mission will end with an intense day of meetings at the headquarters of Plug & Play, Planet Labs, Astranis and Berkley SkyDeck. The Luxembourg Chamber of Commerce, the Luxembourg City incubator and Plug & Play will sign a Memorandum of Understanding to formalise future collaborations with this major U.S. incubator.
Highlighting the significance of the trade mission, Carlo Thelen, CEO / Director General of the Chamber of Commerce said, “This programme reflects Luxembourg’s strategic priorities. Space and defence are playing an increasingly important role in Luxembourg’s national agenda, reinforced by concrete initiatives, the most recent being the creation of Luxdefence, a newly established entity designed to structure and represent a rapidly developing industrial ecosystem. At the same time, Luxembourg continues to nurture a vibrant startup ecosystem supported by a robust network of incubators and accelerator programmes”.
Stay tuned on social media to discover more about the final day of this trade mission!
Looking ahead, further activities to the U.S. are already being prepared for 2026.
Interested in expanding your business to the U.S., contact us at: usa@cc.lu
