Dallas, which just won the nation's premier biotech research hub, is beaming with optimism.
So leave it to Elon Musk, the richest man on the planet, to cast a little shadow over this city.
Author Walter Isaacson's long-awaited new book has the apt title Elon MuskHe details how the mercurial billionaire arrived in Austin, the site of a massive factory that now employs more than 12,000 people. (Kudos to his former colleague Kara Carlson, who now covers Musk.) austin american politician. )
The text begins by transporting the reader back to 2020. It begins with Musk and other Tesla employees naming a city as a potential site for a new electric car manufacturing plant, and everyone checking their phones for more information about the town. According to the book, Chicago and New York were quickly ruled out as unsuitable for this purpose.
Los Angeles or San Francisco? That's what Tesla management wanted to leave behind.
Isaacson said he attended Musk's meetings, walked around the factory with Musk, and spent hours interviewing Musk, his family and friends. “They were stuck in limbo, had trouble with redundant committees, and were too nervous about the coronavirus.” , his colleague, and adversary for two years.
Next came the city of Tulsa. There, local leaders undertook a vigorous and highly publicized effort to attract Tesla to Oklahoma.
Nashville? Omead Afshar, one of Musk's top officials, reportedly said it was a good place to visit but not a good place to live.
Then it was Dallas' turn. The southern Dallas County site may have been in contention at one time.
“Texas was appealing, but Dallas was appealing, they agreed.” too much Texas,” according to the book. (Ironically, Mr. Musk wore a cowboy hat at the Austin factory's grand invitation-only opening, which was billed as a “cyber rodeo.”)
Austin, on the other hand, is a university town, and Tesla executives thought it had better music and prided itself on “protecting weird places.”
Hold that thought.
In late May 2020, as Mr. Musk sat in the command center at Cape Canaveral awaiting SpaceX's first manned astronaut launch, Mr. Isaacson said Mr. Musk asked Mr. Afshar if he wanted to go to Tulsa or Austin. Do you want to live there?'' He wrote that he sent the question via text message.
“When Mr. Afshar paid tribute to Mr. Tulsa and gave Mr. Musk the answer he expected, he emailed back, 'Okay, great.'” According to the book, we did it in Austin. So you have to run it.
Not only did Tesla build an electric car factory in Austin, but Musk eventually moved its headquarters from California to Austin. His fascination with Texas is now almost legendary, with him establishing the SpaceX Starbase in South Texas and moving the offices of his neurotechnology company Neuralink and tunneling company Boring to the Austin area.
Oh, and if Dallas is “too Texas”, there are currently nearly 84,000 North Texans driving around in EVs. Tesla is by far the dominant brand. This represents 37% of the state's total.
