After analyzing the alma maters of 250 CEOs of US tech companies with a market value of more than $1 billion, Bloomberg found the Technion-Israel Institute of Technology tied for seventh with MIT, Rice University and the University of Texas, Austin. Israel is home to one of the world’s top tech hubs and Technion is where many of the country’s brightest go to train, according to Bloomberg Rankings.

One of those brightest Technion alumni is Stratasys CEO David Reis, according to Bloomberg. Reis’ 3-D printer maker acquired New York-based MakerBot Industries for at least $403 million earlier this year. The listing also cited the Technion’s collaboration with Cornell University to build a $2 billion tech campus and startup incubator on New York City’s Roosevelt Island.

Technion Nation, a book published on Technion’s Cornerstone Centenary in 2012, gives substance to the ranking. The book reveals that the annual output of Technion graduates in high‐tech industries and computer services, communications and Research & Development is estimated at a minimum of $21 billion. Investment in Technion science and engineering education is highly profitable, with higher rates of return that almost any other conceivable risk‐free investment.

Some key notes about Technion Alumni

• Some 67,000 persons have graduated from Technion since its first graduating class, and some 90,000 degrees have been awarded. Of Israel’s 125 top business leaders, according to Dun & Bradstreet, 41 (one‐third) are Technion graduates. Of these, 28 head publicly‐listed firms, and 13 lead private companies.
• Technion graduates lead Israel’s 11 top exporters which account for $19.5 b. in exports out of a total of some $45 b., and employ 80,000 workers.
• Entrepreneurship:  of the 298 NASDAQ‐listed companies listed with “non‐American origins”,  fully 121 (41 per cent) are Israeli.  Of those, half (59) are led by Technion graduates and/or were founded by Technion graduates.  These Technion‐originating startup companies had a market value of $28.4 b. (as of Nov. 2010).

In the past year, Technion was ranked 6th in the world for innovation and entrepreneurship by an MIT survey. It is home to a growing number of scientists who have been listed on the MIT TR35 for global innovators, most recently, Dr. Kira Kadinsky. Distinguished Prof. Dan Shechtman, who received the Nobel Prize for Chemistry in 2011, pioneered a far-reaching course in technological entrepreneurship and has taken the position as a global advocate of science, technology and application through entrepreneurship. In 2012, Technion won a bid together with Cornell University to set up New York’s school for genius – the Jacobs Technion Cornell Innovation Institute (JTCII) on Roosevelt Island which is slated to be the seeds of a coming high-tech revolution rivaling Silicon Valley in potential for future impact.