Never miss a story
Sign up for our free daily morning email...
...and afternoon text update
×
Technology
Featured
austonia newsletter
Get connected with our daily update
Most viewed
Tesla has filed plans to build a 30,000-square-foot showroom and vehicle service center at The Yard, a creative business center in south Austin.
<p>The space, located at 500 E. St. Elmo Road, is currently home to Music Lab, one of Austin's most beloved recording studios which had already downsized once by closing its popular West Oltorf location in 2019. It is unclear if the recording studio is relocating or shutting down completely.</p><div class="rm-embed embed-media"><iframe allowfullscreen="" aria-hidden="false" frameborder="0" height="450" src="https://www.google.com/maps/embed?pb=!1m18!1m12!1m3!1d3447.76096245339!2d-97.76380758489368!3d30.21536918182052!2m3!1f0!2f0!3f0!3m2!1i1024!2i768!4f13.1!3m3!1m2!1s0x8644b49844a28147%3A0x16c545a37d3361e2!2s500%20E%20St%20Elmo%20Rd%2C%20Austin%2C%20TX%2078745!5e0!3m2!1sen!2sus!4v1610725077106!5m2!1sen!2sus" style="border:0;" tabindex="0" width="600"></iframe></div><p>Tesla's filings project construction to begin by this June, and will take an estimated three months and $2.5 million to complete. This will be the third showroom in Austin. The existing locations are located off of Research Boulevard in northwest Austin and in the Domain—this will be the first showroom in South Austin.<br/></p><p>The new location will be closer to the newest Tesla gigafactory in Southeast Travis County. It was less than a year ago that Elon Musk announced the automotive company would be building its next gigafactory in the Austin area. The factory will facilitate building the new Cyber Truck, Model Y and batteries for the cars. It is projected to begin operations this year.</p>
Keep Reading
Show less
Popular
There's nothing Austinites look forward to more than South by Southwest, and this year, the annual event returns as a digital experience.
<p><a href="https://www.sxsw.com/attend/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">SXSW Online</a>, an exclusive digital experience, will take place from March 16-20. </p><p>SXSW Conference announced Austin local Willie Nelson as the event's keynote speaker, along with <a href="https://www.sxsw.com/conference/featured-speakers/" target="_blank">featured speakers</a> Queen Latifah, The Chainsmokers, Matthew McConaughey, Samantha Bee, Sir Richard Branson and many more. </p><div class="rm-shortcode" data-rm-shortcode-id="6273e86109ae50582562dc730c9e2b5d" id="2621b"><blockquote class="twitter-tweet twitter-custom-tweet" data-partner="rebelmouse" data-twitter-tweet-id="1349545529563295752"><div style="margin:1em 0">We just announced more than 200 Conference sessions, over 50 Featured Speakers, and 1 legendary Keynote for #SXSW O… https://t.co/kZGlJmceRD</div> — SXSW (@SXSW)<a href="https://twitter.com/sxsw/statuses/1349545529563295752">1610591702.0</a></blockquote></div><p>More than 200 conference sessions were curated for this year's festival via <a href="https://panelpicker.sxsw.com/" target="_blank">PanelPicker</a> on seven different themes: A New Urgency, Challenging Tech's Path Forward, Cultural Resilience in the Arts, The Rebirth of Business, Transforming the Entertainment Landscape, Connection in Disconnection and An Uncharted Future.</p><p>Sessions include speakers from well-known companies, universities and creative industries such as the <a href="https://www.utexas.edu/" target="_blank">University of Texas</a>, <a href="https://www.billboard.com/" target="_blank">Billboard</a>,<a href="https://www.theartblog.org/2019/12/black-women-make-art/" target="_blank"> Black Women Make Art</a>, <a href="https://www.condenast.com/" target="_blank">Condé Nast</a>, <a href="https://hms.harvard.edu/" target="_blank">Harvard Medical School</a>, <a href="https://www.indeed.com/" target="_blank">Indeed</a>, <a href="https://www.nasa.gov/" target="_blank">NASA</a>, <a href="https://nanoporetech.com/" target="_blank">Oxford Nanopore Technologies</a>, <a href="https://www.patreon.com/" target="_blank">Patreon</a>, <a href="https://www.siriusxm.com/" target="_blank">SiriusXM</a>, <a href="https://about.twitter.com/en_us.html" target="_blank">Twitter</a> and many more.</p><p>Along with speakers, SXSW has announced Demi Lovato: Dancing with the Devil, her latest docuseries, as a headliner on the opening night of <a href="https://www.sxsw.com/festivals/film/" target="_blank">SXSW Film Festival</a>. Other highlight films include Hysterical, Confronting a Serial Killer, The Hunt for Planet B, Jakob's Wife, Luchadoras, Recovery and Violet. The full film festival lineup will be released Feb. 10. </p><div class="rm-shortcode" data-rm-shortcode-id="09d83a44de234224da322c09e0279e65" id="b406f"><blockquote class="twitter-tweet twitter-custom-tweet" data-partner="rebelmouse" data-twitter-tweet-id="1349793903659126784"><div style="margin:1em 0">We're thrilled to share a preview of the 28th annual #SXSWFilm Festival including the World Premiere of Demi Lovato… https://t.co/deBcu4QzeB</div> — SXSW (@SXSW)<a href="https://twitter.com/sxsw/statuses/1349793903659126784">1610650919.0</a></blockquote></div><p>Registration is open now for the SXSW online pass for $249. The pass covers the entire digital experience including conference keynotes and speaker sessions, workshops, SXSW Film festival, musical performances, online exhibitions, networking meetups, professional development and more. You can register online <a href="https://cart.sxsw.com/products/reg-sxsw-online?_ga=2.92725406.268843889.1610649417-105008521.1610649417'" target="_blank">here</a>.</p><p>After the cancelation of the 2020 SXSW due to the pandemic, Austinites can look forward to a safe digital experience from home. The festival has not yet announced any in-person events this year due to the COVID-19 surge in Austin, but originally announced it would be a hybrid of in-person and virtual events in the fall last year.</p>
Keep Reading
Show less
Frank Coppersmith, CEO of custom software application company Smarter Reality, relocated to the Austin area from Silicon Valley in 2005.
One by one, millionaires and tech giants—and all their employees—have made Austin home. In fact, in 2020, Austin topped LinkedIn's list of cities that gained the most newcomers.
So, what's all the fuss about Austin from West Coast tech stars?
<p>In short, it's friendly business climate, low taxes and workforce, says <a href="https://gov.texas.gov/news/post/governor-abbott-welcomes-oracle-headquarters-to-texas" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Texas Gov. Greg Abbott when he welcomed software giant Oracle to the state</a>. But it's more than that, as Austonia found out by talking with multiple techies who've moved to Austin.</p><p>For business reasons or not, the trend of moving to Austin has moved electric vehicle manufacturer <a href="https://austonia.com/technology/elon-musk-tesla" target="_self">Tesla</a> and <a href="https://austonia.com/elon-musk-moving-to-austin" target="_blank">possibly richest man Elon Musk</a>, DropBox CEO Drew Houston, <a href="https://www.investopedia.com/why-silicon-valley-companies-are-moving-to-texas-5092782" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">hardware producer Hewlett Packard Enterprises, and venture capital firm 8VC</a>, among others, in 2020 alone.</p><p>Between business and lifestyle, techies have found there's no place like Austin.</p><p><strong>Business-friendly culture</strong></p><p>Years ago, local techie Frank Coppersmith predicted tech would eventually flee the Bay Area.</p><p>Coppersmith was a factory production manager for a San Jose, California technology company focused on the semiconductor manufacturing supply chain. Prompted by the semiconductor sector's move outside of the area, he followed suit, landing in Round Rock in 2005. He now is the CEO of software development company, Smarter Reality, located in the Domain.</p><p>"As much as I liked California, it was clear that the direction of the way the industry was moving and the way California was moving, that there would just be more opportunity elsewhere," Coppersmith said.</p><p><a href="https://www.academia.edu/5618347/A_History_of_High_Tech_and_the_Technopolis_in_Austin" target="_blank">Austin's relationship</a> with tech can be traced back to the 1950s, when Austin sought to become a technology town in an effort to replace the city's reliance on oil jobs. IBM relocated its Selectric typewriter facility to Austin in 1963, followed by Texas Instruments in 1967 and Motorola in 1974, and the city eventually grew its own giant in 1984, Dell Computers. Like a ripple effect, big names have attracted more names to follow, with some of the biggest arriving in 2020.<br/></p><p><a href="https://www.austintechnologycouncil.org/" target="_blank">Austin Technology Council</a> CEO Amber Gunst says the state's "business-friendly" culture is an attractive draw, not just due to the lack of a state income tax but for how its local and state governments foster the growth and expansion of new and existing companies.</p><p>"That's not the case in California, especially in the Bay Area," Gunst said.</p><p>According to Gunst, the pandemic has exacerbated the migration of tech companies into Austin, with Bay Area and East Coast employers permitting staff to work anywhere. Gunst's group is a resource for new transplants, helping tech workers transition through the organization's job board and member connections, she said.</p><p>"That's the one difficulty that we face right now," she said. "Without being able to physically come together, we do have people who feel a bit isolated when they first move here and try to meet new people."</p><p><strong>Living in paradise</strong></p><p>California-native Adam Prishtina was prompted to move to Austin by the quality of life Central Texas offers. The Athena Health tech executive was living with his wife and one-year-old son in a 1,200-square-foot apartment in the heart of San Francisco in 2015. </p><p>"We said, 'this is crazy,'" Prishtina said. "We should look at an opportunity to be able to live in a house with a front yard and a back yard, to just have room for the family to grow and expand."</p><p>His Circle C neighborhood reminds him of Los Gatos, a wealthy Northern California suburb Prishtina couldn't have easily afforded, with his current 3,600-square-foot home he estimated to be priced upwards of $3 million there instead of the $500,000 he paid.</p><p class="shortcode-media shortcode-media-rebelmouse-image">
<img class="rm-shortcode" data-rm-shortcode-id="20de98aba0b58749f52be5be89798954" data-rm-shortcode-name="rebelmouse-image" id="3a126" type="lazy-image" data-runner-src="https://assets.rebelmouse.io/eyJhbGciOiJIUzI1NiIsInR5cCI6IkpXVCJ9.eyJpbWFnZSI6Imh0dHBzOi8vYXNzZXRzLnJibC5tcy8yNTQ1MDA5My9vcmlnaW4ucG5nIiwiZXhwaXJlc19hdCI6MTY1MjYzNDEwNH0.KkcEa3HvAjwdm5mLXgBvK_QyunmZLAXAlJvEP8AA10c/img.png?width=980"/>
<small class="image-media media-caption" placeholder="Add Photo Caption..." spellcheck="false">Tech exec Adam Prishtina's young sons enjoy fishing on a sunny day in Austin's Circle C neighborhood. The San Francisco-native moved to the area in 2015, prompted by a better quality of life. (Adam Prishtina)</small></p><p>And the same goes for technical writer Joyce Fee, who thinks of Central Texas life as "paradise."<br/></p><p>Fee worked in the technology field for about 25 years when she considered moving, prompted by worsening traffic, skyrocketing cost of living and deterioration of public schools.</p><p>After a visit to Austin, she and her partner looked for houses in the area online, seeking privacy, a pool and a five-minute walk to the lake. With some trepidation, they chose the Hill Country.</p><p>"We were afraid because we are a gay couple and we thought, 'Oh, man, are we going to go to Texas and get murdered or something like that,'" she said. "I remember those first few months, the neighbors were so warm and welcoming, (asking), 'How y'all doing.'"</p><p class="shortcode-media shortcode-media-rebelmouse-image">
<img class="rm-shortcode" data-rm-shortcode-id="57bdbda3d501cb3247960205c394e2fa" data-rm-shortcode-name="rebelmouse-image" id="fd4fb" type="lazy-image" data-runner-src="https://assets.rebelmouse.io/eyJhbGciOiJIUzI1NiIsInR5cCI6IkpXVCJ9.eyJpbWFnZSI6Imh0dHBzOi8vYXNzZXRzLnJibC5tcy8yNTQ1MzQzNi9vcmlnaW4ucG5nIiwiZXhwaXJlc19hdCI6MTY2Nzg0MDQyOH0.XGsXPRxcOayvqgNjv1KJL04_p_oBHGbCScf-vUx5Hiw/img.png?width=980"/>
<small class="image-media media-caption" placeholder="Add Photo Caption..." spellcheck="false">For California-transplant Joyce Fee, Central Texas is "paradise," given its lower cost of living and quality of life. (Leslee Bassman)</small></p><p><strong>Transitioning</strong><br/></p><p>Both Prishtina and Fee said they've encountered local folks who weren't inclined to roll out the welcome mat for the former West Coast residents. Chastised for raising city property taxes, pricing out longtime residents from their homes, Prishtina suggested West Coast transplants make themselves more approachable.</p><p>"If they get to know you, then that's going to reduce the stereotypes native Austinites have about Californians who move here," Prishtina said.</p><p>Lakeway resident Malur Narayan, who works for an Austin-based global consulting firm, offers advice to California techies who might encounter differences in the cuisine, culture and politics of their adopted state.</p><p>"The key advice (to newcomers) is to adapt because Texas is not California," Narayan said. "Take the best of what you have and offer it here."</p>
Keep Reading
Show less
(Bob Daemmrich)
Tesla CEO and recent Texas transplant Elon Musk has surpassed Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos to become the wealthiest person in the world, according to Bloomberg's Billionaires Index.
<p>"How strange," the South African entrepreneur tweeted on Thursday in response to the news.</p><div class="rm-shortcode" data-rm-shortcode-id="a82a3a075a3afeb5c95b9745eb140613" id="319ad"><blockquote class="twitter-tweet twitter-custom-tweet" data-partner="rebelmouse" data-twitter-tweet-id="1347204459147902978"><div style="margin:1em 0">@teslaownersSV How strange</div> — Elon Musk (@Elon Musk)<a href="https://twitter.com/elonmusk/statuses/1347204459147902978">1610033547.0</a></blockquote></div><p>Musk is now worth $188.5 billion, compared to Bezos' $187 billion, thanks to Tesla's rising stock prices, which have increased nearly 750% since 2019.<br/></p><p>As a result, Musk's net worth has skyrocketed over the last year in <a href="https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2021-01-06/musk-close-to-surpassing-bezos-as-world-s-richest-person#:~:text=Elon%20Musk%2C%20the%20outspoken%20entrepreneur,the%20world's%20500%20wealthiest%20people." rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">what Bloomberg called</a> "possibly the fastest bout of wealth creation in history."</p><p>Musk, who is also the CEO of SpaceX, Neuralink and the Boring Company, <a href="https://austonia.com/elon-musk-texas-move" target="_self">announced last month</a> that he had moved to Texas from California. Austin realtor Cord Shiflet <a href="https://austonia.com/elon-musk-moving-to-austin" target="_blank">confirmed to Austonia</a> that Musk and his representatives have been touring area properties.</p><p>Musk cited his two biggest projects—the forthcoming $1.1 billion Tesla Gigafactory in Southeast Travis County and the Starship prototype that SpaceX is developing in South Tesla—as reasons for the move. </p><p>Last year, Musk chafed against COVID-19 regulations in the state of California, where Tesla operates a factory, and threatened to move the company's headquarters. </p><p>There is also the issue of taxes.</p><p>California has the highest income tax rate of any state in the country. Texas, on the other hand, has none. By relocating, Musk could save potentially <a href="https://www.cnbc.com/video/2020/12/04/elon-musk-tells-close-friends-he-plans-to-move-to-texas.html" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">billions of dollars</a> in taxes on his Tesla compensation package. </p><p>Assuming the five-county Austin metro has a median annual income of $71,576 and a population of 2.23 million people, as reported by the U.S. Census Bureau, Musk's net worth is greater than the annual income of the entire metro population. </p><p><br/></p><p><strong>More on Elon Musk:</strong></p>
<h2><a href="https://austonia.com/elon-musk-moving-to-austin" target="_self">Exclusive: Where will Elon Musk move? He says 'Texas,' sources say 'Austin'</a></h2>
<img lazy-loadable="true" src="https://assets.rebelmouse.io/eyJhbGciOiJIUzI1NiIsInR5cCI6IkpXVCJ9.eyJpbWFnZSI6Imh0dHBzOi8vYXNzZXRzLnJibC5tcy8yNDc3NjU0MS9vcmlnaW4uanBnIiwiZXhwaXJlc19hdCI6MTYyMDcwMDY2NX0.ZucXY0th0eYgaV_uoBjTY-ycUDzJYJfhykZm-opZLt4/img.jpg?width=980" id="daebc" class="rm-shortcode" data-rm-shortcode-id="ee01cca28bb67270517989498c000103" data-rm-shortcode-name="rebelmouse-image" />Elon Musk tells friends he is moving to Texas. Could he land in Austin?
From Your Site Articles
- Oracle moves headquarters from Silicon Valley to Austin - austonia ›
- Austin's four richest self-made women in America, Forbes - austonia ›
- 8 Austin billionaires make a return to the Forbes 400 list - austonia ›
- Elon Musk announces Austin Gigafactory will open in 2021 - austonia ›
- What billionaires like Elon Musk look for in Austin real estate - austonia ›
- 2020 was "unprecedented" and 2021 hasn't been much different - austonia ›
Related Articles Around the Web
Keep Reading
Show less
