3 Houston-area companies appear on Fortune’s inaugural AI ranking

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Spring-based ExxonMobil ranks within the top 10 on the new Fortune AIQ 50 ranking. Photo via Getty Images.

Three companies based in the Houston area appear on Fortune’s inaugural list of the top adopters of AI among Fortune 500 companies.

The three companies are:

No. 7 energy company ExxonMobil, based in Spring
No. 19 tech company Hewlett Packard Enterprise, based in Spring
No. 47 energy company Chevron, based in Houston

All three companies have taken a big dive into the AI pool.

In 2024, ExxonMobil’s executive chairman and CEO, Darren Woods, explained that AI would play a key role in achieving a $15 billion reduction in operating costs by 2027.

“There is a concerted effort to make sure that we're really working hard to apply that new technology to the opportunity set within the company to drive effectiveness and efficiency,” Woods told Wall Street analysts.

Hewlett Packard Enterprise is also employing AI to decrease costs. In March, the company announced a restructuring plan — including the elimination of 3,000 jobs — aimed at cutting about $350 million in annual expenses. The restructuring is scheduled to wrap up by the end of October.

Hewlett Packard Enterprise’s Catalyst cost-cutting program includes a push to use AI across the company to improve efficiency, Marie Myers, the company’s executive vice president and chief financial officer, told Wall Street analysts in June.

“Our ambition is clear: A leaner, faster, and more competitive organization. Nothing is off limits. We are focused on rethinking the business — not just reducing our costs, but transforming the way we operate,” Myers said.

At Chevron, AI tools are being used to quickly analyze data and extract insights from it, according to tech news website VentureBeat. Also, Chevron employs advanced AI systems known as large language models (LLMs) to create engineering standards, specifications and safety alerts. AI is even being put to work in Chevron’s exploration initiatives.

Bill Braun, Chevron’s chief information officer, said at a VentureBeat-sponsored event in 2024 that AI-savvy data scientists, or “digital scholars,” are always embedded within workplace teams “to act as a catalyst for working differently.”

The Fortune AIQ 50 ranking is based on ServiceNow’s Enterprise AI Maturity Index, an annual measurement of how prepared organizations are to adopt and scale AI. To evaluate how Fortune 500 companies are rolling out AI and how much they value AI investments, Fortune teamed up with Enterprise Technology Research. The results went into computing an AIQ score for each company.

At the top of the ranking is Alphabet (owner of Google and YouTube), followed by Visa, JPMorgan Chase, Nvidia and Mastercard.

Aside from ExxonMobil, Hewlett Packard Enterprise, and Chevron, two other Texas companies made the list: Arlington-based homebuilder D.R. Horton (No. 29) and Austin-based software company Oracle (No. 37).

“The Fortune AIQ 50 demonstrates how companies across industry sectors are beginning to find real value from the deployment of AI technology,” Jeremy Kahn, Fortune’s AI editor, said in a news release. “Clearly, some sectors, such as tech and finance, are pulling ahead of others, but even in so-called 'old economy' industries like mining and transport, there are a few companies that are pulling away from their peers in the successful use of AI.”

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An aerial view of Stargate’s AI data center in Abilene. Photo courtesy OpenAI.

Abbott highlights Texas AI boom, with Houston projects on the horizon

AI investments are booming in Texas, Gov. Greg Abbott says. And Houston is poised to benefit from this surge.

At a recent Texas Economic Development Corp. gathering in the Dallas-Fort Worth area, Abbott said AI projects on the horizon in the Lone Star State would be bigger than the $500 billion multistate Project Stargate, according to the Dallas Business Journal. So far, Stargate includes three AI data centers in Texas.

Stargate, a new partnership among OpenAI, Oracle, Softbank, and the federal government, is building AI infrastructure around the country. The project’s first data center is in Abilene, and the center’s second phase is underway. Once the second phase is finished, the 875-acre site will host eight buildings totaling about 4 million square feet with a power capacity of 1.2 gigawatts. An additional 600 megawatts of capacity might be added later.

On Sept. 23, Stargate announced the development of another five AI data centers in the U.S., including a new facility in Shackelford County, Texas, near Abilene. That facility is likely a roughly $25 billion, 1.4-gigawatt AI data center that Vantage Data Centers is building on a 1,200-acre site in Shackelford County.

Another will be in Milam County, between Waco and Austin. In conjunction with Stargate, OpenAI plans to occupy the more than $3 billion center, which will be situated on a nearly 600-acre site, the Austin Business Journal reported. OpenAI has teamed up with Softbank-backed SB Energy Global to build the facility.

Abbott said several unannounced AI projects in Texas — namely, data centers — will be larger than Stargate.

“Bottom line is ... when you look at diversification, the hottest thing going on right now is artificial intelligence,” Abbott said.

The Houston area almost certainly stands to attract some of the projects teased by the governor.

In Houston, Taiwanese tech manufacturer Foxconn already is investing $450 million to make AI servers at the 100-acre Fairbanks Logistics Park, which Foxconn recently purchased for a reported $142 million. The park features four industrial buildings totaling one million square feet. It appears Foxconn will manufacture the servers for Apple and Nvidia, both of which have announced they’ll open server factories in Houston.

The Foxconn, Apple, and Nvidia initiatives are high-profile examples of Houston’s ascent in the AI economy. A report released in July by the Brookings Institution identified Houston as one of the country’s 28 “star” hubs for AI.

The Greater Houston Partnership says the Houston area is undergoing an "AI-driven data revolution."

“As Houston rapidly evolves into a hub for AI, cloud computing, and data infrastructure, the city is experiencing a surge in data center investments driven by its unique position at the intersection of energy, technology, and innovation,” the partnership says.

Health care companies dominated Fortune's America’s Most Innovative Companies report for 2025, with Houston’s top-rated company on the list falling into that sector. Photo via Getty Images

8 Houston companies earn spots among Fortune's most innovative for 2025

top honor

Eight Houston companies have been named to Fortune’s third annual list of America’s Most Innovative Companies, joining another 16 from the state of Texas.

The group of 300 companies nationwide was rated based on production innovation, process innovation, and innovation culture, according to Fortune. In partnership with Statista, the magazine considered IP portfolios, employee, expert and customer opinions; and many other factors.

While many of the top-rated companies fell into the tech sector, Fortune reports that health care companies made up the largest portion of the 2025 list. Sixty-three honorees fell into the health care category, including Houston’s top-rated company, Houston Methodist.

Here’s which Houston companies made the list and where they ranked:

No. 35 — Houston Methodist
No. 54. — ExxonMobil
No. 137 — NRG Energy
No. 158 — Hewlett-Packard Enterprise
No. 169 — BMC Software
No. 175 — Texas Children’s Hospital
No. 227 — Sysco
No. 268 — Chevron

“This award is a true credit to the culture we have created around innovation and the incredible work of Roberta Schwartz, our Chief Innovation Officer, and her team at the Center for Innovation,” Marc Boom, CEO of Houston Methodist, said in a LinkedIn post. “They have really set the tone for how we can use innovation and technology to continue to deliver the highest quality care for our patients.”

Dallas-Fort Worth claimed the largest number of Texas companies on the list, with 11 headquartered in the metroplex. Houston was home to the second-most with eight hailing from the Bayou City. Austin is home to only four of the companies on the list, however, companies from the Capital City ranked higher on average, with Oracle, Tesla and Dell Technologies claiming the top three spots for the state. Beloved Texas grocer H-E-B was the one company to represent San Antonio.

Here's how the other Texas companies fared:

No. 6 — Oracle
No. 11 — Tesla
No. 14 — Dell Technologies
No. 37 — AT&T
No. 59 — Texas Instruments
No. 89 — Charles Schwab
No. 91 — McKesson
No. 113 — Jacobs Solutions
No. 125 — Baylor, Scott & White Health
No. 165 — Frontier Communications
No. 201— H-E-B
No. 210 — CBRE Group
No. 219 — TTEC Holdings
No. 223 — GameStop
No. 251 — American Airlines Group
No. 271 — Caterpillar

California-based tech conglomerate Alphabet Inc. topped the list for the third year in a row, and California companies again represented the majority of companies on the list, according to Fortune. Alphabet, Microsoft, Apple, IBM and Salesforce made up the top five, of which three are headquartered in California.

The 2025 group had a median revenue of $22 billion over the last 12 months, according to Fortune. See the full report here.

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Houston college joins inaugural workforce accelerator supported by Google

hands-on training

Houston City College (HCC) is one of 15 community colleges from around the country to be selected for the first-ever Workforce Futures Accelerator.

The three-year effort is supported by Google.org, the tech company’s philanthropic arm, and led by the Association of Community College Trustees (ACCT), a non-profit educational organization that represents over 500 community, junior, and technical colleges. The accelerator focuses on helping colleges embed virtual, employer-sponsored training opportunities into short-term workforce training programs, giving participants access to opportunities that they might otherwise receive through internships or other "work-based learning" stints.

"The Workforce Futures Accelerator reflects the Houston City College mission of offering a high-quality, affordable education for workforce training and career development," Pretta VanDible Stallworth, HCC trustee and chair-elect of the ACCT board of directors, said in a news release. "Advancing student success and creating pathways to opportunities ensures that our students are well equipped to succeed and build a secure future in today's economy.”

Through the accelerator, HCC is tasked with fusing online project-based learning opportunities with its workforce education programs. The idea is to give students hands-on experiences working on projects sponsored by employers, allowing them to gain real-world knowledge in the process.

HCC will select two workforce programs that meet the accelerator’s criteria and insert into them into coursework. In the second and third year of the accelerator, the selected colleges are expected to scale the programs by adding instructors and programs to develop a network of to support their continued implementation.

“Participation by HCC will strengthen how we provide students with career-connected learning experiences that complement their classroom education and align with the needs of employers,” HCC Chancellor Margaret Ford Fisher added in the news release. “We are focused on ‘future forward’ strategies to meet the present and future needs of our region’s businesses.”

Two other Texas colleges were chosen to participate in the accelerator: Lamar Institute of Technology in Beaumont and Grayson College in Denison.

The remaining cohort includes:

Bergen Community College in Paramus, New Jersey
Central Louisiana Community College in Alexandria, Louisiana
Clark State College in Springfield, Ohio
Great Basin College in Elko, Nevada
Heartland Community College in Normal, Illinois
Hudson County Community College in Jersey City, New Jersey
Manchester Community College in Manchester, New Hampshire
Mesa Community College in Mesa, Arizona
Mohave College in Kingman, Arizona
San Joaquin Delta Community College in Stockton, California
San Juan College in Farmington, New Mexico
West Virginia University Parkersburg in Parkersburg, West Virginia

New report ranks Texas among top 10 states where AI could disrupt jobs

AI Workforce

A new nationwide report examining where AI could "reshape" the most jobs has ranked Texas No. 9 among the most at-risk states for AI job disruption.

The new SmartAsset report compared all 50 states and the District of Columbia to calculate the estimated percent of the workforce employed in the 26 occupations with the highest AI exposure, as determined by June 2026 research by the Virginia Economic Information and Analytics Division.

The findings revealed that 500,000 Texas workers, or 3.55 percent of the total workforce, are employed in occupations with "high exposure to potential AI disruption."

This also places the Lone Star State as the 9th most at-risk state in the U.S. where AI exposure can lead to "declining hiring demand, wage pressure, task automation, and other forms of disruption."

"States with larger concentrations of highly exposed occupations could experience more pronounced labor-market changes, particularly in roles where core tasks are more vulnerable to AI-driven restructuring," the report's author wrote.

Texas' biggest cities, like Houston and Austin, are known for their thriving tech and business industries, and the study noted that many of the occupations within those sectors are the most at risk. The Virginia Economic Information and Analytics Division said the top five most AI-exposed occupations in the U.S. are: mathematicians, proofreaders, correspondence clerks, court reporters, and media and communication workers. Additionally, computer programmers, database administrators, web developers, telephone operators, and communications equipment operators round out the top 10 most at-risk positions.

These are the 16 remaining occupations most exposed to AI disruption, in order:

Data Entry Keyers
Statistical Assistants
Office Support Workers
Interpreters and Translators
Database Architects
Software Quality Assurance Analysts
Medical Transcriptionists
Software Developers
Writers and Authors
Payroll Clerks
Web Designers
Miscellaneous Computer Occupations
Insurance Claims Processors
Telemarketers
Computer Numerically Controlled Tool Programmers
Bookkeeping and Accounting Clerks

A separate SmartAsset report from April 2026 found about 20.5 percent of Texas workers use AI to do their jobs in some capacity. That trend will continue to shift further as employers and employees choose to adopt — or reject — AI implementation.

Across the U.S., Washington topped the list as the state with the highest concentration of AI-exposed jobs, with nearly 5.7 percent of the state's workforce employed in the 26 most at-risk positions. SmartAsset said Washington's high prevalence of technology companies is a significant factor that skyrocketed the state to the top of the list.

"Home to major technology companies including Microsoft, Amazon, T-Mobile and Expedia, the state has large numbers of computer programmers and software developers, two occupations with high exposure," the report said.

Meanwhile, Mississippi ranked No. 51 with the lowest concentration of AI-exposed jobs in the nation. About 22,500 workers in Mississippi, or 1.93 percent of its workforce, are at risk for AI disruption.

The top 10 states where AI could reshape the most jobs are:

No. 1 – Washington
No. 2 – Virginia
No. 3 – District of Columbia
No. 4 – California
No. 5 – Utah
No. 6 – Maryland
No. 7 – Colorado
No. 8 – New Hampshire
No. 9 – Texas
No. 10 – North Carolina

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This article originally appeared on CultureMap.com.

UH lands $1.2M NIH grant to fight superbugs using AI, quantum sensing

drug defense

The fight against antibiotic-resistant bacteria like MRSA is getting science fiction-like upgrades at the University of Houston thanks to a new four-year, $1.26 million grant from the National Institutes of Health.

The university says the recent funding brings total federal support up to $3.5 million for 11 years for the project, which uses AI and quantum-sensing technology to better understand how bacterial proteins develop resistance to drugs.

Any medical professional will tell you that one of the worst things that can happen is almost killing an infection. Bacteria that survive attacks from conventional antibiotic treatments emerge tougher, more resistant and more aggressive than before–making them much harder to treat. A good example is the superbug methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA).

UH chemistry professors Yuhong Wang and Shoujun Xu are working on this issue. They know full well that fighting superbugs requires new technology and new approaches, which is what they aim to pioneer with their new grant.

“Drug-resistant bacterial infections such as MRSA are becoming harder to treat, creating an urgent need for faster ways to understand how antibiotics and other small molecules interact with bacterial proteins,” Wang said in a news release.

Wang and Xu’s work centers around GTP, a cellular fuel that can cause tiny changes to a cell's structure when it mutates. Sometimes, those shape changes make it easier for drugs to breach the wall and attack the cells.

The UH scientists are employing AlphaFold, an AI-powered tool that can scan large molecular libraries in seconds. From these models, they can see promising drug combinations for future testing.

Once identified, the team uses their invention, super-resolution force spectroscopy, to monitor the cells. Tiny magnetic beads are attached to genetic material, then magnified to see how strong that material is when pulled. They can measure this incredible microscopic process through an atomic magnetometer, typically used in quantum physics. Combined, all these tools allow a high-definition look at how each molecule might respond to new chemical approaches.

“We're the only chemists in the world that use an atomic magnetometer for biological research,” Xu said. “It's a technique developed by physicists, and there is usually a gap between techniques developed by physicists and biological applications. Yuhong and I have been bridging that gap together for the past 10 years.”

Eventually, Wang and Xu hope to develop powerful software that can be used by drug manufacturers to model cellular responses. With enough predictive data, the software could even get ahead of superbugs’ own mutation, allowing drugs to be developed before new strains arrive.

"We want an algorithm where you input a protein sequence, score the mutation hotspots, and develop new inhibitors before a drug-resistant species even emerges," Wang added.

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