Tesla in Tulsa

[BG918]

Confirmed for Austin today in their ER call.

As expected. Tulsa well-positioned for future Tesla expansion in the central U.S.

[jccouger]

Obviously just used Tulsa for leverage, but still cool they were a part of it

[Pete]

For all those California haters, they will continue to grow on the west coast as well:

Tesla announces it'll be building its next Gigafactory in Texas, outside Austin. They'll build the Cybertruck at the plant. "We'll continue to grow in California," Elon Musk says. "This is a nice split between Texas and California."

[shawnw]

https://twitter.com/MikeCollierWX/st...52719380385792

[shawnw]

teslatulsa.jpg

[Jake]

At least Tulsa tried. All you can ask.

[Pete]

As I've said, you miss 100% of the shots you don't take.


At the same time, I immediately thought of this:

[Eric]

This is all I can think of...(sorry... I have young kids):

[soonerfan_in_okc]

Just say thank you very much to the Tulsa team, the economic development team and the governor," Musk said. "I was super impressed, the whole team was super impressed, and we'll for sure strongly consider Tulsa for future expansions ... down the road."


Well at least he gave a shoutout.

[PhiAlpha]

From everything i heard...Tulsa went from a complete after thought to legitimately being considered. Obviously we were used for leverage but that wasn’t their only reason for putting Tulsa in the mix, it was a legit contender from what my contacts have said. Just sounds like we were too late to the game and had way too much ground to make up but it was a good shot nonetheless.

On a positive note, it sounds like Tulsa, OKC, and the state in general got some great publicity out of it. I can’t remember if it was Pete or someone else who posted it but I thought I remembered hearing/seeing that inquires to relocate or open offices in OK shot up over the last few months with Tesla’s interest thought to be one of the primary drivers. Nothing but good can come out of that. Maybe Tesla will end you throwing us a bone down the road.

[Teo9969]

I think another key positive in all of this is that it substantiates the reach of the "Texas Triangle". It probably is still 10-20 years away, but at some point, the huge Dallas gains are going to push up into OKC in a big way, the same way that Southern CA pushes out to Phoenix and Las Vegas. If Tulsa and OKC can find enough diverse strengths and the strengthen the connection, it would be big for OK. That was the biggest reason I wanted Tulsa to land the factor. A Tesla factory in Tulsa and Paycom in OKC goes a long way to show that Oklahoma can be more than just the O&G sector.

[jdizzle]

It was Mike Tyson vs. a featherweight. Austin is a powerhouse, and Tulsa never truly stood a chance. Bully on them for trying, but they were never truly in the race.

[Eric]

Getting mentioned constantly in the news with the hottest name in Silicon Valley is nothing but good. Worse case scenario is nothing changes obviously. But this in no way hurts the area.

[Pete]

The entire reason that Austin is booming and considered a hotspot for young people and highly-paid jobs is because of its immediate proximity to a great university.

Same exact reason Silicon Valley evolved where it is. And same thing for the Tech Triangle in North Carolina, Amazon in Seattle, etc.


Until Oklahoma makes legitimate investment in education, we are going to continue to finish behind these other job magnets and get call and distribution centers instead of headquarters and sophisticated manufacturing.

Tinker, fortunately, has been a great asset and just about the lone exception in the state.

[dcsooner]

The entire reason that Austin is booming and considered a hotspot for young people and highly-paid jobs is because of its immediate proximity to a great university.

Same exact reason Silicon Valley evolved where it is. And same thing for the Tech Triangle in North Carolina, Amazon in Seattle, etc.


Until Oklahoma makes legitimate investment in education, we are going to continue to finish behind these other job magnets and get call and distribution centers instead of headquarters and sophisticated manufacturing.

Tinker, fortunately, has been a great asset and just about the lone exception in the state.

+1000

[BG918]

The entire reason that Austin is booming and considered a hotspot for young people and highly-paid jobs is because of its immediate proximity to a great university.

Same exact reason Silicon Valley evolved where it is. And same thing for the Tech Triangle in North Carolina, Amazon in Seattle, etc.


Until Oklahoma makes legitimate investment in education, we are going to continue to finish behind these other job magnets and get call and distribution centers instead of headquarters and sophisticated manufacturing.

Tinker, fortunately, has been a great asset and just about the lone exception in the state.

Agree, with adequate funding OU has the potential to be more of an major economic driver for the OKC metro (and entire state). Building up the research park in Norman and continuing to build up OU Medical Center are critical. And in Tulsa building up the respective OU and OSU campuses should be a higher priority, along with building up OSUHSC and Medical Center in downtown Tulsa. The concentration of public higher education dollars should be in Norman, OKC, Stillwater and Tulsa/

[Laramie]

Agree, with adequate funding OU has the potential to be more of an major economic driver for the OKC metro (and entire state). Building up the research park in Norman and continuing to build up OU Medical Center are critical. And in Tulsa building up the respective OU and OSU campuses should be a higher priority, along with building up OSUHSC and Medical Center in downtown Tulsa. The concentration of public higher education dollars should be in Norman, OKC, Stillwater and Tulsa/

Agree 100% with this concept...

The greatest challenge will be to replace the Agriculture tech mentally that has dominated Oklahoma for decades. The technology has been there for years; problem with Oklahoma is transformation of that IT into the 21st Century cyber world where your results and outcomes are aligned with the latest cyber adaptations.

'The Oklahomans (OPUBCO)' purchase of the last color printing presses that were outdated on the date of installation is an example. Now the Tulsa World prints OKC's daily newspaper.

We are having some serious concerns at the OUHSC complex with cyber upgrades; we can't function with yesterday's technology in today's cyber environment. There needs to be a serious audit at the OUHSC with anything involving future equipment purchases. Let's not allow Oklahoma to be 'suckered' into purchasing equipment that presents a coordination challenge with the rest of upgraded Health Science Center networks throughout the country.

[gopokes88]

Tulsa was very seriously considered, they got to the race on Thursday when the start was Tuesday. This was communicated to them all along, and I tried (hopefully well) to make that clear here. Which is why you never heard about what Tulsa offered incentive wise. I was told by friends that Stitt told Musk, let us know you’re coming to Tulsa and whatever Austin offers we’ll double it. It’s just details. There’s no reason to go there yet though, we need to sell you in Tulsa first.

There were a lot of very real signs that Musk took it seriously. If he just used Tulsa as leverage, there’s no reason to come visit and sit down. The threat of considering another town would be enough. And yes they will eventually wind down California, shift the production line to Nevada and move the HQ to Austin. Austin is where Musk wants to live. That’s ultimately why Austin won. Tulsa will be the frontrunner for the next battery factory or production plant.

[gopokes88]

Also fun fact, the internal survey of Tesla employees they cities schools as a reason they’d be open to moving Oklahoma. (Owasso, broken arrow, Jenks, union, and ex-urban) So the narrative that Oklahoma is terrible at everything is exaggerated, plenty of worse places.

[Pete]

Also fun fact, the internal survey of Tesla employees they cities schools as a reason they’d be open to moving Oklahoma. (Owasso, broken arrow, Jenks, union, and ex-urban).

Source?

Like the public schools in the Tulsa area are better than those in Austin?


And the comments were not about the suburban, independent school districts.

It was about the complete absence of a top-tier university in this state; the very thing all these great job centers are built around.


Empirically, Oklahoma ranks very near the bottom in virtually every education metric.

[bhawes]

Hopefully Oklahoma City get jobs from Tesla over Tulsa.

[chuck5815]

Sounds like they will also be building the Semi in Austin.

They figure the sales from the Semi will be very low, so might as well produce all trucks in the same location.

[Jake]

nvm

[gopokes88]

Source?

Like the public schools in the Tulsa area are better than those in Austin?


And the comments were not about the suburban, independent school districts.

It was about the complete absence of a top-tier university in this state; the very thing all these great job centers are built around.


Empirically, Oklahoma ranks very near the bottom in virtually every education metric.

No no. Mis-phrased on my part.

Tesla ran an internal poll in California to gauge what their employees thought of Tulsa and Austin. Austin scores better in every metric, but Tulsa far exceeded internal expectations, including schools. This slowed the process down even more.

Agreed on universities. It was made clear to Stitt and Tulsa leaders we must improve in higher ed. But for public k-12 schools it became eh they suck everywhere with good in suburban and ex-urb. (Claremore, glenpool etc)

Ou needs to find a way to become an AAU university. They would be if not for the medical school being in OKC. But perception is reality and AAU matters.

[BG918]

Ou needs to find a way to become an AAU university. They would be if not for the medical school being in OKC. But perception is reality and AAU matters.

Curious why does it matter that the med school is in OKC, the campuses are only 20 miles apart.

I know AAU was always one of Boren’s goals, maybe Harroz can lead the charge but can only do so much without adequate state funding to supplement private donors.