Open Source: Raleigh once needed Citrix. As company exits, that’s no longer the case.
I’m Brian Gordon, reporter for The News & Observer, and this is Open Source, a weekly newsletter discussing business, labor and technology in North Carolina.
“This is the first gunshot in the land stampede that will come to West Raleigh.”
That is how one real estate developer described the news that the cloud computing provider Citrix was opening its headquarters in the city’s downtown Warehouse District. It was 2012, and the red-brick district was dreary. The rapid redevelopment experienced in Durham’s former cigarette factories had yet to materialize for Raleigh’s post-industrial neighborhood.
Fast-forward to today, and much has changed. The district now contains a plethora of places to dine, live, shop and drink. Morgan Street Food Hall opened in 2018, around the time Weaver Street Market expanded to the area. Modern high-rise apartments loom above.
And Citrix has come and gone.
This week, the office Citrix occupied for nearly a decade was listed for lease. The former headquarters have been vacant for months as the company began pulling out workers earlier this year.
At one point, Citrix employed around 700 people at the headquarters. According to the North Carolina Department of Commerce, the company had around 550 employees in Wake County as of 2021, the last time the company reported this figure to the state.
Citrix was taken private in early 2022, and the email listed for its media department no longer works. Its presence in Raleigh is no longer visible, and its current local headcount isn’t known. But judging by the number of people out in the Warehouse District last night, enjoying a rare break in this week’s weather, the neighborhood can certainly survive without it.
GOP wants to add seats to economic incentive committee
Senate Bill 512 would, among other things, change the composition of the state’s Economic Investment Committee.
The EIC approves the state’s incentive-backed economic projects, like Apple, Toyota, Wolfspeed, VinFast and dozens of other lesser-known efforts. The committee currently has five members, three of whom are state department heads appointed to their positions by Democratic Gov. Roy Cooper. The two other seats are appointed by the House speaker and the Senate president, who are both Republicans.
Under Senate Bill 512, which more broadly transfers power away from Cooper, the EIC would get two new seats. The House speaker would pick one of the new members, the Senate president the other. In terms of appointees, the partisan balance of the committee would flip.
The final bill still needs to be negotiated, but Republicans, who hold a veto-proof majority in the House and Senate, should be able to enact it — unless the N.C. Supreme Court (which is also majority Republican) says otherwise.
The EIC has recently approved several “green-friendly” projects, including potential billions for companies that make electric vehicles (VinFast), lithium-ion batteries (Toyota, Sunlight Batteries), and electric vehicle chargers (Kempower).
Might these type of projects become less common under a different EIC structure? Or would the committee continue on its current course?
VinFast loses grow: By the numbers
Last week, the Vietnamese automaker VinFast reported declining revenue and deepening net losses. As the company readies to construct its first North American plant in North Carolina, here are six key numbers to know:
$598 million. VinFast’s net losses for the first quarter of 2023 as its revenue declined 49% from the same period last year. The company lost $2.1 billion last year and $1.3 billion in 2021.
$9.3 billion. How much the parent company VinGroup has spent on VinFast since launching the car company in 2017.
7,500. The number of people VinFast has committed to employ at its future car and battery plant site in Chatham County, about 30 miles southwest of Raleigh, by 2027. The company has also promised to invest $4 billion on the site.
2025. The year VinFast says it will open its Chatham facility. The company originally set its opening for 2024 before postponing.
$2.5 billion. Additional funding VinFast secured in April from VinGroup and its owner, Pham Nhat Vuong, who is the wealthiest person in Vietnam.
$1.25 billion. The combined amount in economic incentives VinFast could receive from state and county if it meets its future hiring and investment goals.
Short Stuff: Boom Supersonic keeps building
Want to try coworking? The Triangle has a variety of communal work communities to pick. I visited nine spaces to get a sense of what makes each unique. Here’s my guide from American Underground to WeWork.
Boom Supersonic unveiled new details about its future passenger supersonic jet, which the company will build at the Piedmont Triad International Airport in Greensboro.
The environmental sustainability startup GreenPlaces wants to double its staff after a $13 million Series A funding round.
Kempower, the Finnish company building an EV charger plant in Durham, announced it will include the North American Charging Standard, or NACS, for its chargers. NACS is an electric vehicle charging standard created by Tesla.
MetLife concluded its global hackathon this week, with two members of the winning U.S. squad based at the company’s Global Technology Hub in Cary. Many tech firms host hackathons which encourage employees to present ideas for innovation.
National Tech Happenings
The FTC has accused Amazon of tricking millions of users into signing up for Amazon Prime and then making it hard to cancel.
Apple, the company, is taking on apples, the fruit, in what Wired calls “a truly weird trademark battle.”
Meet Jimmy Donaldson, aka Mr. Beast, the YouTube sensation that continues to be active in his hometown of Greenville, North Carolina. The New York Times Magazine dubbed Donaldson “the Willy Wonka of YouTube.”
Thanks for reading!
This story was produced with financial support from a coalition of partners led by Innovate Raleigh as part of an independent journalism fellowship program. The N&O maintains full editorial control of the work.
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