Open Source: Apple wants more time to build its RTP campus. This gives NC a choice.

I’m Brian Gordon , tech reporter for The News & Observer , and this is Open Source, a weekly newsletter on business, labor and technology in North Carolina.

Apple broke three years of silence this week on its planned $552 million campus in North Carolina’s Research Triangle Park . The company intends to pause the project for four years , it said, and has asked the state to extend the incentive deal the two sides entered in April 2021.

In many aspects, it already felt like this project was on hold. Construction has not begun and the only indication of a possible opening date has been a traffic impact analysis in which Apple representatives noted a target of 2026.

So, will Apple instead open an RTP campus in 2030? Later, sooner, never? It’s not like companies are racing to add more office space at the moment. But Apple owns the site land, 281 acres along N.C. 540 near Cary and Morrisville , and its immense wealth (it has the world’s second largest market cap at $3.2 trillion) allows it to move at its own pace.

It may be a while before the public hears from the company again on the campus, given Apple’s secretive track record . And the extension request leaves North Carolina with a choice on what to do next.

In 2021, the state awarded Apple a special “transformative” grant that set two parallel timelines for the Cupertino tech giant — one timeline for hiring; the other for building. Under the deal, Apple committed to create 140 local jobs by the end of last year. By 2031, this hiring threshold will scale to at minimum 2,700 positions.

Apple provided North Carolina its first performance report this winter, which the state Commerce Department is reviewing. Every indication is that Apple has met its initial hiring obligation; the company currently leases offices at the MetLife campus in Cary and shared this week it has grown its Raleigh-area headcount by around 600 in recent years. Apple is also the tenant of an office building under renovation near the RDU airport.

As for completing its campus, Apple pledged to invest at least half a billion dollars in the Wake County site by the end of 2031. North Carolina tied incentives, up to $845 million through the year 2061, to the company first hitting these hiring and spending goals.

So, will the state push back Apple’s deadlines by four years?

North Carolina statute says the Commerce Department can only extend an agreement up to 24 months if a company misses its targets. And the law states “under no circumstances may the Committee extend the base period by more than a total of 24 months.”

There is a lot of time, however, for the two sides to work something out. And Apple has not formally submitted a request to have the terms of its incentive agreement adjusted, said North Carolina Department of Commerce spokesperson David Rhoades.

If the state believes Apple truly intends to establish a massive RTP campus, the powers that be in the Commerce Department and North Carolina General Assembly may be able to design a new agreement or pass statutes enabling more time. North Carolina created the special “transformative” incentive grant in 2017 with the ambition of luring Apple , so gearing policies towards the company wouldn’t be without precedent.

Apple is set to receive its first state incentive payment this fall. This money could be a bargaining chip for the state, though for a company of Apple’s size, giving up a single incentive payment on less than 200 jobs would be more a symbolic gesture of good faith than a financial sacrifice.

In one sense, Apple has already come to the Triangle. It’s added hundreds to its local workforce and displays its corporate logo outside its Cary office. But many are interested in the physical campus and what having that in the heart of the RTP could mean for workers, home prices, and the region’s overall national prestige. Missing out on that would be tough, and the state might not be quick to give up the opportunity — even with a wait.

The house that Wegovy built

From a nebulous campus to one that already exists — and is poised to get much bigger. On Monday, the Danish drugmaker Novo Nordisk committed to add $4.1 billion and around 1,000 jobs to its manufacturing facilities in the Johnston County town of Clayton. It’s the largest North Carolina jobs news of 2024 so far and the largest private biotech investment in state history. Again, $4.1 billion.

Novo Nordisk plans to open its new space in stages between 2027 and 2029. It has already begun construction, which isn’t a shock given the site produces one of the hottest medicines in the U.S at the moment., the weight-loss drug Wegovy . Each week, around 25,000 people in the U.S. start taking it, Novo Nordisk says.

The company also makes the buzzy obesity treatment Ozempic as well as its traditional insulin treatments. It’s been in Johnston County for more than 30 years and the rest of the decade should be very busy.

Securing future foreign investment

Top North Carolina economic leaders were in Washington, D.C., this week to court foreign businesses (and be courted themselves) at the SelectUSA Investment Summit. This annual event saw record attendance this year, with every U.S. state and territory there to meet and greet potential investors from 96 international markets.

Of course, North Carolina had a suggestion on where foreign businesses should expand.

“Our meetings during the Summit are with companies that have either expressed interest in learning more about North Carolina and/or that we have identified as being attractive (foreign-direct investment) targets for the state,” said Christopher Chung, CEO of the Economic Development Partnership of North Carolina , the state’s lead business recruitment organization, in an email.

Four of the five largest jobs announcements in North Carolina so far this year have been made by foreign-based companies: Novo Nordisk (Denmark), Boviet Solar (Vietnam), Fujifilm (Japan), and Siemens Energy (Germany). Expect more.

Clearing my cache

• The latest on the VinFast factory project in Chatham County: On May 30, the county approved a permit for the Vietnamese EV maker to build a general assembly structure. But before it will issue this permit, Chatham needs VinFast to name its contractor. VinFast said the Chicago-based firm Clayco remains top contractor on the stalled project but that subcontractors still have to be finalized. The ball is in the car company’s court, 11 months after VinFast ceremonially broke ground at the site.

• TruLab , which makes tech for clinical trial oversight, has relocated its HQ from downtown Durham to Frontier RTP, which is part of Research Triangle Park’s emerging office, retail and residential hub.

National Tech Happenings

• To compete with upstart Temu, Amazon intends to launch a service for shipping cheap products directly from Chinese warehouses. Will be interesting to see what that portends for the company’s U.S.-based warehouses. Amazon is the largest private employer in Wake County with a massive fulfillment center in Garner.
• There’s only one Al Michaels. But NBC will use an A.I. version of the famous broadcaster to narrate some of its Summer Olympics highlights.
• Meta , owner of Facebook, WhatsApp and Instagram, is facing a lawsuit under a Civil War-era rule from a software engineer who claims the company didn’t hire him because it desired adding less expensive foreign visa workers.

Thanks for reading!