alt Hacker NewsWhy Boise?
The press release says something about 4 people in Boise a long time ago?
None of the quotes have anyone from Boise or even Idaho. Not the governor of Idaho, not a University of Idaho faculty.
There are quotes from Lutnick, Cook from Apple, Jensen Huang, someone from Stanford.
What's the connection to Idaho? Why put this there?
As an Oregonian, I'm a little biased, but why not put this closer to ex-Intel employees and a source of labor. As an Oregonian living now in Florida, the stories about everyone from California moving to Texas and Florida definitely don't seem true to me. My opinion is that those migration patterns hide the realities which is that you've definitely got a lot of financiers and billionaires like Sergey Brin (i.e. tax evaders) declaring they are now Florida residents. And a bunch of people outside of high skilled fields (setting aside healthcare workers) who are migrating in search of cheaper housing. But not a lot of "middle class" tech people (I've been searching for four years and they aren't here). Probably they don't want to subject themselves to the worst public schools in the country and fight the culture wars.
But the point is, how do you staff this research lab without an expectation that thousands of people will move their families there. This is a research lab, not jobs for a data center (electrician and construction).
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Boise is a desirable place to live if you love the outdoors. And it is a capital city. If you can't afford SF or Boulder, you might be able to swing it in Boise. Of course, Boise housing prices are expensive already, and this will make it even more expensive.
The press release was poorly edited. While everyone inside the semiconductor industry knows that Micron is based in Boise, the general public doesn't. The press release should have said so rather than leaving it to the reader to interpret the 408 area codes listed for the contacts. Oh wait...that's San Jose. Boise is 208.
Fwiw the story of how Micron ended up being founded in Boise is pretty interesting.
They were founded in Boise. Boise is their HQ and where most of their developer and research staff live. I worked there for almost 9 years. They have several fabs here, all on the same plot of land just outside of town. This will add to it.