Uniquely Houston event to convene innovation experts across aerospace, energy, and medicine

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Every year, Houston's legacy industries — energy, medicine, and aerospace — come together to share innovative ideas and collaborate on future opportunities.

For the eighteenth year in a row, the annual Pumps & Pipes event will showcase and explore convergence innovation and common technology themes across Houston’s three major industries. The hosting organization, also called Pumps & Pipes, was established in 2007 in Houston and is dedicated to fostering collaboration amongst the city's three major industries.

With NASA in its backyard, the world’s largest medical center, and a reputation as the “Energy Capital of the World,” Houston is uniquely positioned to lead in cross-industry convergence innovation and is reflected in the theme of this year’s event – Blueprint Houston: Converge and Innovate.

Here's what you can expect to explore at the event, which will take place this year on December 9 at TMC Helix Park. Tickets are available online.

The state of Texas’ aerospace investments

How are the recent strategic investments in aerospace by the State of Texas transforming the space economy and driving growth in adjacent industries? What is the case for cultivating a more dynamic and vibrant aerospace R&D environment?

These are the key questions explored in the opening session of Pumps & Pipes, moderated by David Alexander (Director, Rice Space Institute). Joining the discussion are distinguished leaders Norman Garza, Jr., Executive Director of the Texas Space Commission (TSC); as well as two members of the TSC board of directors: Sarah “Sassie” Duggelby, CEO/Co-Founder of Venus Aerospace; and Kathryn Lueders, GM at Starbase, SpaceX.

This panel will spotlight Texas’ critical role in shaping the future of aerospace, with a focus on its cross-sector impact, from space exploration to innovation in energy and health care. We’ll explore how the state’s investments are fueling research and development, creating economic opportunities, and fostering a more interconnected, high-tech ecosystem for the future.

Real-world applications of robotics and synthetic biology

Explore the groundbreaking intersection of synthetic biology and robotics as they reshape industries from aerospace to energy to health care. Experts from academia and industry — Rob Ambrose of Texas A&M University, Shankar Nadarajah of ExxonMobil, Shalini Yadav of the Rice Synthetic Biology Institute, and Moji Karimi of Cemvita — will discuss the real-world applications and future possibilities of these two fields, including innovative uses of robotics and drones to monitor emissions from deep-sea oil rigs, and synthetic microbes that convert carbon dioxide into valuable chemical products.

Discover how synthetic biology and robotics are paving the way for a more sustainable, autonomous, efficient, and interconnected future.

The total artificial heart – a uniquely Houston story

Heart failure affects millions globally, yet only a small fraction of patients receive life-saving heart transplants. The Total Artificial Heart (TAH), developed by BiVACOR, offers a revolutionary solution for patients with severe heart failure who are ineligible for a transplant.

Luminary leader, Dr. Billy Cohn, will discuss the groundbreaking BiVACOR TAH, a device that fully replaces the function of the heart using a magnetically levitated rotary pump. This innovative approach is part of an FDA-approved first-in-human study, aiming to evaluate its use as a bridge-to-transplant for patients awaiting heart transplants.

Moderated by Dr. Alan Lumsden (Chair Dept. of CV Surgery at Houston Methodist Hospital), join Dr. Cohn as he shares insights, and the story-behind, this pioneering technology and its potential to reshape the future of heart failure treatment, offering new hope to thousands of patients in need.

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Stuart Corr is the director of innovation engineering at The Bookout Center at Houston Methodist and executive director of Pumps & Pipes.

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Portal Innovation's 30,000-square-foot Helix Park lab space is open for business. Photo via Portal Innovations/X

Innovative life science hub opens doors of Houston location, welcomes inaugural startups

ready to grow

A new life science-focused venture capital engine has officially opened offices in Houston.

Portal Innovations moved into a space at Helix Park in October. The offices are led by executive director Monique Knighten.

Knighten has been in Houston for 16 years, since she was a postdoc at the University of Texas Institute for Molecular Medicine. “It's like a lot of us. We come for a specific reason, and then we just find reasons to stay,” she says.

And now, that reason is to push the emerging Houston ecosystem forward by helping early-stage startups to build themselves toward success. Portal does that partly by providing capital, but besides cash investments, emerging companies need a physical infrastructure where their work can happen. They also need great people to support their cause at every step of development. To that end, networking and convening with beneficial people is key for Portal.

With locations already in Chicago, Boston and Atlanta, why did Portal choose Houston?

“If you take a look at where lots of scientific publications are coming from, if you look at where a lot of technology that eventually becomes commercialized, a lot of it will come initially from labs that are right here in Houston,” says Knighten. “Houston also has a great quality of life. That's really important so that startups need to be able to have a place where they can have their teams.”

And who has joined Portal in its 30,000-square-foot Helix Park lab space? March Biosciences, a cancer-focused cell therapy startup; Crossbridge Bio, responsible for a cancer therapeutic that just closed a $10 million seed round; Artidis, which is personalizing cancer diagnosis thanks to a new nanomedical biomarker technology; Spanios, which has created human model systems to help researchers better identify therapeutic options for solid tumors; Stingray Therapeutics, a cancer immunotherapy company working on metastatic or advanced solid tumors; Remunity Therapeutics, an immuno-oncology startup developing immune-stimulating antibody-drug conjugates that reactivate anti-tumor immune response; and Phiogen, which is doing promising work in the world of non-antibiotic anti-infectives.

The Cancer Focus Fund, an oncology-focused investment fund in partnership with The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center is also sharing space with the burgeoning biomedical companies.

Even Texas Medical Center CEO Bill McKeon is excited to greet Portal.

“In Portal, we have a partner with a proven track record of leveraging venture capital funding, expert partners and strong programming to support dynamic, entrepreneurial businesses at pivotal moments of their growth. We look forward to building on our collective expertise and shared vision to further support the breakthroughs of early-stage life science ventures,” he says on the company’s website.

By working with Portal, each of the companies will benefit not only from Knighten’s expertise i building teams gathered from her time at Sartorius Stedim Biotech and decade with Miltenyi Biotec, but also that of the other Portal teams. Working on a national scale also gives the brands opportunities for national exposure. Just one more way, Houston’s ecosystem is continuing to move the needle both for the healthcare companies in it and the patients who will one day benefit.

Rice University opens biotech venture studio in TMC

rapidly scaling

In its mission to amplify and advance biotech innovation, Rice University has announced its latest initiative — a new lab focused on bringing life-saving medical technologies to commercialization.

Established to rapidly build companies based on Rice University's portfolio of over 100 patents, RBL LLC is a new biotech venture creation studio based in Texas Medical Center Helix Park. RBL comes on the heels of establishing the Rice Biotech Launch Pad, a biotech innovation accelerator that opened last year.

Paul Wotton, executive director of the Rice Biotech Launch Pad, co-founded RBL with his colleagues Omid Veiseh, Rice professor of bioengineering and faculty director of the Rice Biotech Launch Pad; Jacob Robinson, Rice professor of electrical and computer engineering; and Dr. Rima Chakrabarti, a physician scientist and venture capital investor with KdT Ventures.

“This is a pivotal moment for Houston and beyond,” Wotton, who serves as RBL’s managing partner, says in a news release from Rice. “Houston has rapidly emerged as a global life sciences powerhouse, blending cutting-edge research with early clinical applications at Rice and the city’s world-renowned hospital systems.

"Investors from across the nation are recognizing Houston’s potential, and with RBL, we’re building on that momentum," he continues. "We’ll not only amplify the work of the Rice Biotech Launch Pad but expand our reach across Texas, creating opportunities for biotech ventures statewide and driving growth for the biotech industry as a whole.”

Strategically located in TMC, RBL will collaborate with medical leaders, investors, corporations, and other players both in the same building and on the greater TMC campus.

“Leveraging Rice University’s Biotech Launch Pad breakthroughs and pairing it with the world-class translational infrastructure of TMC Helix Park well positions RBL to drive unprecedented advances in patient care,” William McKeon, president and CEO of the TMC, says in the release. “This partnership between academia, industry and health care is exactly what’s needed to transform medical discoveries into real-world solutions that improve lives globally.”

RBL is Rice's latest effort to bridge the gap between academia and biotech innovation, an effort led by Paul Cherukuri, Rice’s chief innovation officer, who reportedly spearheaded development of the new initiative.

“RBL is a game-changer for Rice, Houston and the global biotech community,” Cherukuri adds. “This venture not only accelerates the commercialization of our innovations but also sets a blueprint for other universities looking to maximize the real-world impact of their discoveries. By combining scientific expertise with entrepreneurial support from Day Zero together with strategic clinical partnerships in the TMC, we’re creating a model for driving large-scale biotech innovation that universities everywhere should aspire to replicate.”

Since the Rice Biotech Launch Pad was established, Motif Neurotech closed its series A round with an oversubscribed $18.75 million, the hub secured a $34.9 million grant, and a “living pharmacy” founded at the Launch Pad received industry validation.

“RBL provides a powerful platform to translate high-impact scientific discoveries into therapies that will dramatically improve patient outcomes,” Veiseh says. “Our goal is to rapidly bring Rice’s pioneering research into the clinic, delivering life-saving solutions to patients around the world.”

Houston Methodist's cardiovascular sciences, orthopedics and RNA therapeutics research programs will be the first to occupy the new space. Photo via houstonmethodist.org

Houston Methodist signs on at new TMC Helix Park building

moving in

Texas medical giant Houston Methodist is the latest to join the Dynamic One building within TMC Helix Park.

The hospital announced that it has signed a 75,800-square-foot lease in the building and will take over two floors of biomedical research laboratories. Houston Methodist's cardiovascular sciences, orthopedics and RNA therapeutics research programs will be the first to occupy the space.

“We are always focused on translating innovative medical discoveries into viable therapies for patients. These highly entrepreneurial programs, which translate these discoveries to the bedside, are a natural fit within the emerging biotechnology ecosystem that the TMC is cultivating,” Edward Jones, president and CEO of Houston Methodist Research Institute, said in the announcement.

Houston Methodist joins anchor tenant Baylor College of Medicine in the state-of-the-art building, which opened in Nov. 2023.

The 12-story Dynamic One building features lab space, offices, restaurants, and stores. It represents the first of four buildings planned for the 37-acre TMC Helix Park and was one of the largest life sciences projects in the U.S. set to come online last year.

Developers are slated to open three more move-in-ready Beacon Ready Labs in the building this summer, ranging from 9,000 to 15,000 square feet.

“We are excited to welcome Houston Methodist to this space; their commitment to bench to bedside innovation and track record of transformative new discoveries aligns with our vision for the campus,” William McKeon, president and CEO of the Texas Medical Center, said in a statement. “Beacon Capital has been an outstanding partner in the development of TMC Helix Park, lending their insights to our efforts to design a campus that would seamlessly blend institutions and industry.”

TMC Helix Park officially opened last October with the launch of the TMC3 Collaborative Building. The 250,000-square-foot building anchors the campus and houses research initiatives from the four founding partners: Texas Medical Center, The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center, Texas A&M University Health Science Center, and The University of Texas Health Science Center at Houston.

UTHealth Houston also broke ground on its 350,000-square-foot tower on the campus last summer. It's slated to open in time for the 2026 Fall semester. And TMC unveiled plans for the fourth and final component of Helix Park, the TMC BioPort, in 2022.

The UTHealth Houston School of Public Health, which operates out of three buildings currently, will consolidate all of its operations in the new building. Rendering courtesy of UTHealth

UTHealth Houston latest to break ground in Helix Park

under construction

UTHealth Houston School of Public Health broke ground Tuesday on a new tower in the Texas Medical Center's Helix Park.

The $229 million facility is slated to be open in time for the fall semester in 2026. It will be home to research laboratories, distance-learning technology, an auditorium, teaching kitchen, collaborative spaces, and classrooms and adds 350,000 square feet to TMC’s Helix Park, which has several projects underway.

The UTHealth Houston School of Public Health, which operates out of three buildings currently, will consolidate all of its operations in the new building at 1930 Old Spanish Trail. Disciplines taught in the new tower will include epidemiology, genetics, nutrition, health policy, data science, and health promotion.

According to a statement from UTHealth, the facility will allow the school to continue to grow as enrollment has increased 27 percent over the last five years.

“The new building reflects our bold thinking as we pioneer radical solutions for imminent and future public health challenges while giving our students the tools and resources to improve the health of Texas,” Eric Boerwinkle, dean of UTHealth School of Public Health, said in a statement.

Houston-based Kirksey Architecture and Detroit-based Smith Group designed the new 10-story building which incorporates sustainable design. The tower is slated to feature rainwater harvesting for irrigation, an upper-level terrace, holistic teaching garden and a building automation programming. A skybride over Old Spanish Trail will also connect the UTHealth Houston School of Public Health with a plaza that is shared with MD Anderson.

The new tower joins the 12-story Dynamic One project at TMC Helix Park, which is slated to open this year. It will be anchored by Baylor College of Medicine and is the first of the four buildings planned for the 37-acre, five-million-square-foot development, named for the shape of the park and walkway design at the center of the campus.

The TMC3 Collaborative Building will also be located within Helix Park, also slated to open this year. The 250,000-square-foot space will house research facilities for MD Anderson Cancer Center, the Texas A&M University Health Science Center, the University of Texas Health Science Center at Houston, and TMC, as well as VC firms and hedge funds. UTHealth is also slated to move into a portion of that building in September or October.

Helix Park will be one of four districts within the TMC, including the already operating TMC Medical Campus and the TMC Innovation Factory. The TMC BioPort completes the list. The biomanufacturing and medical supplies distribution site is intended to create over 100,000 new job opportunities once completed.

One of Houston's biggest medical office projects — the $1.3 billion, 400,000-square-foot O’Quinn Medical Tower — is expected to deliver this year. Photo courtesy of Baylor College of Medicine

Report: Houston to see highest concentration of medical office project completions this year

opening soon

Medical office and life sciences projects are making a big splash in Houston’s commercial real estate sector in 2023.

The 42Floors commercial real estate website ranks five Houston-area medical office buildings among the country’s 20 largest medical office projects set to open this year. Meanwhile, 42Floors identifies two Houston developments among the 20 biggest U.S. life sciences projects on tap to debut in 2023.

Leading the list of the largest U.S. medical office buildings scheduled to be completed this year is the $1.3 billion, 400,000-square-foot O’Quinn Medical Tower. Set to open April 14 at the McNair Campus of Baylor St. Luke’s Medical Center, the outpatient facility will adjoin the McNair Hospital Tower, which opened in 2019.

The O’Quinn tower will serve as the new clinical home of the Dan L Duncan Comprehensive Cancer Center. The center is a federally designated facility for cancer care and research.

Highlights of the 12-story O’Quinn tower, southeast of the Texas Medical Center, include:

Ambulatory surgery center with 12 operating rooms and 10 endoscopy suites
80-bay setup for infusion therapy
More than 70 exam rooms
More than 850 parking spaces

In all, five medical office properties in the Houston area made the 42Floors list, representing the highest concentration of major projects in any U.S. metro area that are scheduled to open this year. The four medical office properties joining the O’Quinn tower on the list are:

Houston Methodist Sugar Land Medical Office Building 4, 159,252 square feet
Kelsey-Seybold Springwoods Village Campus, 157,983 square feet
Kelsey-Seybold Ambulatory Surgery Center in Clear Lake, 116,000 square feet
1715 Project in Friendswood, 107,000 square feet

A separate 42Floors list ranks Dynamic One, part of Baylor College of Medicine’s TMC Helix Park, as the second largest life sciences project in the U.S. set to come online this year. Houston’s TMC3 Collaborative Building lands at No. 19.

The 12-story Dynamic One project will feature lab space, offices, restaurants, and stores. It represents the first of four buildings planned for the 37-acre, five-million-square-foot TMC Helix Park, which is projected to generate an economic impact of $5.4 billion.

The 42Floors list puts the square footage of Dynamic One’s north tower at 365,000. Organizations involved in the project cite the square footage as 355,000.

The Baylor College of Medicine has signed up as Dynamic One’s anchor tenant. It will occupy 114,000 square feet of lab and office space.

“Baylor College of Medicine is a major force in life sciences discovery and commercialization at TMC. Their move to TMC Helix Park will serve as a catalyst for enhanced collaboration with TMC’s other esteemed Institutions, as well as with industry leaders from around the world,” Bill McKeon, president and CEO of TMC, says in a news release.

Also located at TMC Helix Park, the four-story TMC3 Collaborative Building will span 250,000 square feet. It will contain research facilities for MD Anderson Cancer Center, the Texas A&M University Health Science Center, the University of Texas Health Science Center at Houston, and TMC.

In addition, the TMC3 Collaborative Building will house life sciences companies, the TMC Data Collaborative, the TMC Venture Fund, the Braidwell hedge fund, and venture capital and private equity firms.

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9 Houston-based companies make Fortune Global 500 list in 2026

Worldwide Rankings

Nine Houston companies landed on the 2026 Fortune Global 500 list, which ranks the world's largest corporations by revenue for the 2025 fiscal year.

Houston's showing on the list was led by energy companies, with Spring’s ExxonMobil claiming the top local spot. Here’s what Houston-area companies made the list, and where they ranked:

No. 15 ExxonMobil
No. 36 Chevron
No. 61 Phillip 66
No. 159 Sysco
No. 243 ConocoPhillips
No. 292 Enterprise Products Partners
No. 343 Plains GP Holdings
No. 460 SLB
No. 481 Hewlett Packard Enterprise

After 12 years as No.1, Arkansas-based Walmart was replaced this year by Seattle-based Amazon in the top spot for 2026. Amazon achieved this by bringing in $700 billion in revenue in 2025, representing a 12 percent increase from the previous year.

"Across global business, we see again and again that the leaders who are winning are those who embrace change,” Alyson Shontell, Fortune's editor in chief and chief content officer, said in a news release. "Amazon has topped the Fortune Global 500, knocking Walmart off its pedestal. The company has continually reinvented itself across new businesses and bold bets—including a $200 billion capital commitment, largely to building its capacity for AI and cloud computing, in this year alone."

The U.S. has 141 companies on the 2026 Fortune Global 500 list, which is the most of any country. Companies in America generated $15.5 trillion in aggregate revenues, a 6 percent increase from the previous year.

The number of women CEOs at Fortune Global 500 companies reached a record of 34 top leaders, who represented 6.8 percent of CEOs of companies on the list.

Technology was the standout growth industry on this year’s list, with 38 companies earning revenues that grew 20 percent to about $4 trillion in 2025, with profits climbing 36 percent to $835 billion. The financial sector accounted for the largest share of companies on the list again, with 123 companies in that sector. The energy sector claimed the No. 2 industry spot with 77 companies making the list.

In June, the Fortune 500 list was released, and Texas led the United States with 57 Fortune 500 companies headquartered in the state, generating $2.8 trillion in combined revenue.

Fast-growing Houston real estate startup surges to No. 7 on Inc. 5000

growth report

Houston-based Epique Realty has ridden the AI wave to rank among the Inc. 5000’s 10 fastest-growing private companies.

With three-year revenue growth of 23,210 percent, the AI-powered real estate brokerage appears at No. 7 on this year’s Inc. 5000 list. The 2026 list ranks private companies based on percentage revenue growth from 2022 to 2025.

Epique, founded in 2021, also ranks as the No. 1 fastest-growing company in Houston, No. 1 fastest-growing real estate company in the U.S., and No. 2 fastest-growing company in Texas.

Epique’s annual revenue surpasses $91 million

Between 2022 and 2025, the company’s annual revenue skyrocketed from $391,654 to more than $91.2 million. In 2025, the brokerage closed more than 23,000 deals and surpassed $7 billion in total sales, elevating Epique to the country’s 14th-largest real estate brokerage as measured by volume.

Epique’s network has more than 4,000 agents.

“To debut in the top 10 of the Inc. 5000 is absolute proof that when you relentlessly put agents first, exponential growth takes care of itself,” co-founder and CEO Joshua Miller said in a news release.

“We didn’t achieve this by following the industry playbook; we achieved this by burning it,” Miller added. “By fully funding our agents’ success through free health care, proprietary AI, and world-class leads, we’ve built a company where agents can finally thrive.”

The company’s other co-founders are Chris Miller, chief operating officer and vice president of expansion, and Janice Delci, chief financial officer.

Epique expands business to Canada, Mexico, Australia

The Millers and Delci have guided the company’s rapid expansion.

“Scaling our corporate support team to match [our] hyper-growth while seamlessly expanding across all 50 states and internationally to Canada, Australia, and Mexico takes an incomparable operational infrastructure,” Miller said.

“We have built an enterprise-grade technology ecosystem that allows us to absorb overhead and empower our agents at lightning speed,” he added. “This ranking validates that our disruptive model is working, and it is completely redefining the global industry standard.”

Epique launched its platform in 2023, touting itself as the industry’s first AI-powered brokerage. The startup’s platform provides AI tools for real estate agents to improve their marketing, streamline content creation, and boost engagement with clients and prospects.

Among Epique’s AI tools are:

ChatGPT for generation of property descriptions
AI-assisted creation of blog posts and agents’ bios
Production of Instagram quotes for social media marketing

“When we started Epique, we wanted to build a company that genuinely cared for its agents’ financial and physical well-being,” Delci says. “To see that vision translate into this level of historic record-breaking growth is a beautiful testament to the true power of radical generosity.”

Epique and fellow honorees will be recognized Oct. 14-16 at the 2026 Inc. 5000 Conference & Gala in Dallas.

Six other Houston-area companies land in top 250

Here are the six other Houston-area companies that claimed spots in the top 250 on the Inc. 5000 list. Each company name is followed by its ranking, headquarters city, and three-year growth rate.

No. 27 Empact Technologies, 8,275 percent
No. 60 Action1, 4,512 percent
No 75 Signs By G, 3,684 percent
No. 79 The ’Pause Life, 3,469 percent (Galveston)
No. 110 Turtlebox Audio, 2,576 percent
No. 178 Dahnani Private Equity Group, 1,904 percent (Stafford)

How did companies in Texas’ other major metros fare?

Here’s a breakdown of companies in the Austin, Dallas-Fort Worth, and San Antonio areas that made the top 250 on the Inc. 5000. Again, each company name is followed by its ranking, headquarters city, and three-year growth rate.

Austin (10 companies)

No. 9 Investment Watches, 15,741 percent
No. 72 Razor Metrics, 3,856 percent
No. 91 Autonomize AI, 2,921 percent
No. 102 Choose Your Horizon, 2,719 percent
No. 132 Wander Staffing, 2,296 percent
No. 144 Everyday Dose, 2,179 percent
No. 148 NetRise, 2,118 percent
No. 163 Nutrabound Labs, 1,999 percent (Bastrop)
No. 179 Steadily, 1,890 percent
No. 208 Tiny Health, 1,624 percent

Dallas-Fort Worth (11 companies)

No. 3 Yantran, 258,740 percent (Allen)
No. 12 Paek Management Group, 12,520 percent (Irving)
No. 82 Elite Robotics and Automation, 3,334 percent (Fort Worth)
No. 133 Outamation, 2,291 percent (Southlake)
No. 147 Red Creek Solutions, 2,119 percent (Frisco)
No. 155 JobTread Software, 2,071 percent (Dallas)
No. 164 DAX Eyewear, 1,977 percent (Nevada)
No. 186 Optimized Waste Removal, 1,830 percent (Fort Worth)
No. 204 Freight Flex, 1,642 percent (Denton)
No. 212 Maverick Power, 1,591 percent (McKinney)
No. 229 Innovative Life Sciences, 1,494 percent (McKinney)

San Antonio (one company)

No. 118 Hire With Near, 2,421 percent

Amazon to expand Prime Air drone delivery to almost 500 U.S. cities

In the air

https://sanantonio.culturemap.com/news/city-life/prime-air-expands-service-texas/By the end of the year, more Texans may be able to get ultrafast deliveries through Amazon’s Prime Air drone delivery service. On Wednesday, August 19, the company announced plans to majorly expand drone delivery to nearly 500 cities in the U.S., a sixfold increase from its current footprint.

Although Amazon did not reveal the cities it is targeting for the expansion, it almost certainly will include Texas. The state, which ranks among the biggest states for ecommerce activity, is currently home to four of the nation’s 11 Prime Air sites, including the Houston suburb of Richmond, as well as San Antonio, Waco, and Richardson (near Dallas).

For drone deliveries, the company tends to target areas unencumbered by skyscrapers and major airports. Each facility covers a delivery area of approximately 175 square miles.

Prime Air deliveries must be five pounds or less and fit into a large shoebox. Still, Amazon says more than 60 percent of its most ordered items are eligible. The list includes groceries, cosmetics, medications, clothing, and small electronics like Apple AirPods and Ring doorbells. More fragile items — like eggs — are not available through the service.

Orders arrive as quickly as 30 minutes, with most packages dropped around 60 minutes after checkout. Prime members will enjoy free delivery on orders $50 or more and a $2.99 fee for orders under $50. Non-members pay $4.99.

Amazon drone delivery Photo courtesy of Amazon

According to Amazon, customers should have little worries about orders being damaged or drones being entangled in trees. Shoppers see and confirm their delivery point when placing their first drone delivery order and can select a new area at any time.

Amazon also sends a notification to customers if there is no safe delivery space and does not fly at night or under severe weather conditions. The retail giant says noise is minimal with sound levels similar to idling delivery trucks.

Georgia, Ohio, Illinois, Idaho, and New York are the first states on the expansion plan. All future sites will be subject to regulatory hurdles like zoning changes, but the company is confident it will be serving tens of millions of new customers by year-end.

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This article originally appeared on CultureMap.com.

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