What happened to the “Texas miracle”?
Marketplace Tech
Marketplace
4.5 • 1.3K Ratings
🗓️ 13 May 2024
⏱️ 15 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
Early in the pandemic, many big tech companies based in Silicon Valley exited California, fleeing the high overhead necessary to do business there. One city — Austin, Texas — was consistently tagged as the top destination. The Texas capital offered lower costs, especially in regard to housing and taxes. Another draw for companies: the state’s more lax approach to regulation. Well, after a massive influx, the “Texas miracle,” with Austin at its epicenter, is losing some of its luster. In recent weeks, Tesla, which moved its headquarters from Silicon Valley to Austin in 2020, announced it’s laying off 2,700 workers there. And software giant Oracle, which relocated to Austin at about the same time, is moving its headquarters again, this time to Nashville, Tennessee. Last week, at the Milken Institute Global Conference in Los Angeles, Marketplace’s Lily Jamali asked Austin Mayor Kirk Watson about the state of tech in his city.
Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | Big News, one generous marketplace fan, Dr. Joe Rush from Florida, is offering to match |
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| 0:25.0 | What happens when big tech comes to town? |
| 0:29.0 | From American public media, this is Marketplace Tech. |
| 0:32.0 | I'm L Lily Dramale. |
| 0:35.0 | In the tech migration that took place early in the COVID-19 pandemic, one city was |
| 0:47.5 | consistently tagged as the big winner. From taxes to housing, Austin, Texas was considered more affordable than Silicon |
| 0:55.9 | Valley, another draw for companies the state's more lax approach to regulation. |
| 1:01.0 | Well after a massive influx the Texas miracle with Austin at its |
| 1:06.0 | epicenter is losing some of its luster. In recent weeks Tesla which moved its |
| 1:11.0 | headquarters from Silicon Valley to Austin in 2020, has announced it's |
| 1:15.0 | laying off 2,700 workers there. |
| 1:18.3 | And Oracle, which relocated at the same time, is moving its HQ again to Nashville. |
| 1:24.7 | Earlier this week at the Milken Institute Global Conference, |
| 1:27.9 | I asked Austin Mayor Kirk Watson how he sees the state of tech in his city. |
| 1:33.0 | I've been on the phone and on Zoom calls talking to different people about wanting to be |
| 1:37.3 | involved in life sciences in a way that really has never happened before and that's a big |
| 1:42.0 | part because of what's going on with |
| 1:44.0 | Dell Medical School and the announcement that MD Anderson is going to be coming |
| 1:48.0 | to Austin but also we had a big announcement that there was gonna be $6 billion of CHIPAC money coming |
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