Minneapolis-St. Paul has one of the largest concentrations of high-technology businesses in the nation with over 1,300 technology-intensive firms, 13 FORTUNE 500 "Largest U.S. Corporations." and home to 30 FORTUNE 1000 companies and some of the world's largest private companies.  The educational resources of the University of Minnesota and other local educational institutions provide an excellent supply of engineers and scientists, as well as applied research, to high-technology firms.

Industry in the area consists of R&D, Communications and Manufacturing (including everything from auto parts, motorcycles and power boats to plastics, chemicals and biotech products).

Prime Federal Contractors in the area include:  Lockheed Martin, Northrop Grumman, General Dynamics Information Systems, Raytheon Aircraft Co., Honeywell, Motorola, Lucent Technologies, Oracle, Computer Associates International, CSC and Unisys.