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The Cybertruck pickup and the Model Y will be produced at the Austin Tesla factory.
The Austin metro will soon be home to a $1.1 billion Gigafactory, Tesla founder and CEO Elon Musk announced during the company's quarterly earnings update on Wednesday.
"We're going to make it a factory that's going to be stunning," he told investors, adding that construction is "already underway."
As proposed, the factory will be located on a 2,000-acre site in Southeast Travis County. It will provide at least 5,000 jobs and produce the Cybertruck pickup and the Model Y, a midsize SUV.
Both Del Valle ISD and Travis County offered Tesla tax rebates to build the factory in their jurisdictions. In exchange for significant long-term incentives, Tesla agreed to a minimum wage of $15 an hour for all factory employees, including construction workers.
The proposed factory site has been owned for years by the construction supplier Martin Marietta and used for a sand and gravel mining operation.
The finished factory will include a public-access boardwalk along the Colorado River, Musk said. "It's going to basically be an ecological paradise."
On Twitter, Mayor Steve Adler said that the factory will bring an "economic boost" to East Austin, while Gov. Greg Abbott welcomed the company.
Tesla picks Texas for its Cybertruck factory. Thanks to .@elonmusk & .@Tesla for embracing our great state. Th… https://t.co/tKr7tU2piK— Greg Abbott (@Greg Abbott)1595455819.0
Tesla had support for the factory during the months of negotiation that preceded the announcement, but not from everyone.
Residents and union members raised concerns during public hearings about Tesla's track record of worker safety and adherence to incentive agreements.
This story is developing and will be updated.
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(Dolce Neve)
He's since been offering that same experience for the past seven years with his artisanal gelato shop, Dolce Neve, in Austin, alongside his sister and her husband.
Leo Ferrarese, Marco and Franscesa Silvestrini run Dolce Neve. (Dolce Neve)
While gelato always played a big role in Silvestrini's life, it wasn't in his plans to take on a business with his favorite treat. After a few years in New York working as a management consultant, he felt he was missing out on something. "I decided to take a step back and started thinking, what could... I do to make society better and happier, even just for a moment," Silvestrini said.
He thought back to his childhood and the role gelato played in it and wanted to offer the same experience to Americans.
Once he had the product idea down, it came down to location. Growing up among farmers in a small community in Central Italy, Silvestrini knew he wanted a slower pace of living than New York, so he asked around. The answer he got: "Austin." The only thing he knew about what would become his future home was it had a Formula 1 track.
But after visiting once, he felt a great sense of community he didn't feel in The Empire State. "I felt it was not just a good place for a concept like mine, but also a good place to live because at the end of the day, you cannot just think about your business," he said.
"Dolce Neve" translates to "sweet snow." The shops offers 12-18 flavors at a time. (Dolce Neve)
Similarly, his sister Francesca Silvestrini was experiencing the same feelings while studying for her Ph.D. in Ohio before teaming up with Silvestrini. She went back to Italy to be properly trained in making gelato while Silvestrini focused on the business plan. They brought Leo Ferrarese, her husband, onboard and opened their first shop on South First Street in January 2014. The rest is history.
On the menu, you'll find various traditional and innovative flavors that rotate out. Some of the staples include chocolate, 100% vanilla from Madagascar and salted caramel. Other rotating or seasonal flavors include whiskey and pecan, organic cantaloupe sorbet, goat cheese and pecan, almond custard and tiramisu. They've created over 300 flavors together in the span of the business.
So what's next for the shop? Lately, Silvestrini has been thinking a lot about that. With two locations in Austin, one in Houston—he's just not sure if expanding more is the right move. Maintaining a quality product and good service is of utmost importance that he's not willing to sacrifice.
"In order to be happy, it's not about making money, it's about being an integral part of the community," Silvestrini said. "There have been so many cases in which I think what I did today really made a difference in somebody's life."
