Central Texas Global Business Pulse
Quick Read
3 Stories that are must read
U.S. Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen visited Austin Friday, and spoke at the city’s IRS processing center ahead of her Saturday appearance at the Texas Tribune Festival.
The Inflation Reduction Act was a key focus of her speech, touting the 2021 law’s improvements to IRS operations. Some of her examples included faster phone wait times (down to 3 minutes from 28), better levels of service (88% in 2024 from 15% prior to the IRA), and a “critical step to improving its processing system.”
A new system for settling business disputes started as the state's business courts and the 15th Court of Appeals opened Sept. 1.
Lawmakers passed House Bill 19 last year, and Gov. Greg Abbott appointed 10 judges across the state to hear business disputes involving more than $5 million. Five districts went live Sept. 1: Austin, Fort Worth, Dallas, Houston and San Antonio. Each of the districts will have two assigned judges with two-year appointments. In total, there will be 11 districts, according to the Texas Business Court website.
Tesla's highly anticipated "Giga Train," its first all-electric battery-powered train, has debuted in Germany.
The Giga Train takes passengers from Erkner Station to Tesla Sud, the station located at the company's manufacturing facility, about 20 miles southeast of Berlin. Currently, 500 people can be transported on the train, with 120 seats, space for bicycles, and an information system for passengers, per Teslarati. It's also free to not just Tesla employees, but regular passengers as well.
Big Plan Highlights
US India Chamber of Commerce Austin- 1st Anniversary
Big Plan LLC celebrates with the US India Chamber of Commerce Austin on their remarkable first anniversary! It’s inspiring to witness the incredible work they’ve done in building strong connections and promoting business growth within Central Texas, where the Indian community thrives. Congratulations to Jessica Yang, Anupam Govil, Sri Rao Boddapu, Pramod Patil, and Usha Boddapu for leading such impactful work!”
BBB Heart of Texas Education Foundation
Big Plan’s CEO Fang Fang was honored to join the conversation on strengthening Texas’s small businesses at the BBB Heart of Texas Education Foundation’s vision casting lunch. Collaborating with incredible leaders like Bethany Leffingwell (BBB), Ben Hailey (Coca-Cola Southwest Beverages), Brian Jones (Gravity Lending), Pierre Cardenas (Capitol Credit Union), Frank Hartmann (SquareDirection), Mark Hanson (Greater Austin Asian Chamber of Commerce), and others to disrupt the high failure rate of micro and small businesses. Together, we are building a better future for the Texas economy!
News & Updates
International
The first legally binding international AI treaty will be open for signing on Thursday by the countries that negotiated it, including European Union members, the United States and Britain, the Council of Europe human rights organisation said.
The AI Convention, which has been in the works for years and was adopted in May after discussions between 57 countries, addresses the risks AI may pose, while promoting responsible innovation.
The SGD$1 billion state-of-the-art facility extension spans 429,000 square feet and will produce various small molecule APIs for Pfizer’s oncology, pain, and antibiotic medicines to markets across the world. It has passed all necessary final performance qualification checks and begun commercial manufacturing of products.
Amazon Inc expects to help Indian exporters sell about $5 billion worth of small-ticket items through its platform this year in markets such as the United States and Britain, up from nearly $3 billion in 2023, a company official said.
Under the Amazon Global Selling programme, launched in 2015, nearly 150,000 small exporters across India are expected to sell their products directly to overseas consumers using the company's e-commerce platform.
The container shipping industry reported a significant profit increase in the second quarter of 2024. According to John McCown’s quarterly report on liner sector earnings, net income reached $10.2 billion—up from $5.4 billion in the first quarter and 14.7% increase compared to the same period last year.
The surge in profits comes after six consecutive quarters of declining earnings since the peak of $63.1 billion during the pandemic surge in Q2 2022. The recent upturn is largely attributed to the Red Sea situation, where missile and drone attacks by the Iranian-backed Houthis have forced ships to reroute around the Cape of Good hope, effectively reducing global capacity by 8%.
China’s electric cars have zoomed into a new era of battery-powered driving. Now models such as BYD’s (002594.SZ), opens new tab Seal and Great Wall Motor’s (601633.SS), opens new tab Funky Cat face an international backlash. The U.S. is quadrupling duties on imports of electric vehicles from the People’s Republic to more than 100%, while the European Union is lifting total tariffs close to 50% for some marques. The Chinese-made batteries that power the vehicles are an obvious next target for trade restrictions. But that battle will be even harder for the West to win.
USA
Amazon.com (AMZN.O), sued a U.S. labor board on Thursday, accusing it of illegally interfering in a union election at a New York City warehouse and claiming the agency's structure violates the U.S. Constitution.
The lawsuit filed in San Antonio, Texas, federal court seeks to block the National Labor Relations Board from deciding a case that could force Amazon to bargain with the union, which won a 2022 election at the warehouse in Staten Island.
American businesses looking to reduce their reliance on China have increasingly been eyeing India in the past few years as a new manufacturing hub — and as a hedge against potential disruptions in Chinese supply chains caused by rising geopolitical tensions or another pandemic.
But as India has amped up its production of goods like smartphones, solar panels and medicine, the Indian economy itself has become even more dependent on Chinese imports, in particular for the components that go into these products, according to trade figures and economic analysts.
Japan’s biggest steelmaker hoped it could counter China’s export onslaught with a deal in the U.S., where it would enjoy protection from Chinese rivals. Instead, it found U.S. politics was an equally challenging foe.
The already-slim prospects for Nippon Steel’s 5401 -2.19%decrease; $14 billion proposed takeover of U.S. Steel X 6.74%increase; have narrowed further with President Biden poised to use his executive powers to block the deal, according to a person familiar with the matter.
Texas
Continental Tire, one of the world's largest tire manufacturers, is set to build a new $69 million facility in southern Fort Worth. The project is being reviewed by the city's development services department and is expected to be completed by early 2026. This investment underscores Continental Tire's commitment to expanding its operations in the region, enhancing its production capabilities and contributing to the local economy.
A South Korean-based electric vehicle manufacturer announced the selection of Buda as its first American location Tuesday, the Buda Economic Development Corporation said in a news release.
The arrival of Futronic USA Inc. will create an estimated 350 jobs, making the company Buda’s largest employer, according to the Buda EDC. The collaboration is said to be part of a larger push to attract manufacturers to the city.
The U.S. Department of Transportation is allocating more than $59 million in grant funding to improve road safety in Texas.
The grant funding came from President Joe Biden’s Bipartisan Infrastructure Law, with a total $1 billion in grant dollars allocated to the Safe Streets and Roads for All program. Nineteen communities in Texas will receive grant money to upgrade road safety measures in an effort to minimize traffic-related serious injuries and deaths, per the Thursday announcement.
A group of economic investors representing several southern Mexican states have been touring the Rio Grande Valley of South Texas seeking economic and binational trade opportunities for both regions.
Representatives from the Mexican Business Council for Foreign Trade, Investment and Technology (COMCE Sur) arrived Thursday and are seeking ways to promote binational trade between the Mexican states of Puebla, Tlaxcala, Tabasco, Oaxaca and Veracruz and the South Texas border region.
Austin
With thousands of universities across the U.S., it can be tough to decide where to pursue your higher education.
Austinites might not have to look far, though. Recently, Forbes shared its annual list of the 500 best colleges across the country, with the University of Texas at Austin in the top 50.
With more than 50,000 students, Texas ranked No. 46 overall. The school offers roughly $8,300 in grant funding, with most students facing an average of $5,800 in debt. Additionally, some 89% of students receive some level of financial aid. Within 10 years of graduating, former students also make an average of $137,000.
Facebook parent company Meta Platforms Inc. is shedding another big chunk of Austin office space, but IBM Corp. is stepping in to fill the gap.
IBM is assuming the lease on the entire 320,000-square-foot building in The Domain in North Austin that Meta is vacating.
Cousins Properties, which owns the Domain 12 office building, announced Sept. 5 that an unnamed Fortune 100 tech company will assume Meta's lease on Jan. 1, 2026, and an IBM spokesperson later confirmed that Big Blue is the new tenant.
Tech giant Nvidia Corp. is scouring the Austin metro for a large office lease, sources said.
The Silicon Valley-based artificial intelligence chipmaker is looking for roughly 300,000 square feet, according to a half-dozen sources unconnected to the project.
Nvidia is said to have tapped Nate Stricklen, vice chairman of commercial real estate firm CBRE, in the search. Stricklen forwarded a request for comment to a CBRE spokesperson, who declined. Nvidia also declined to comment.
Opinion Editorial
The article discusses the current state of the U.S. energy system and proposes three strategies to transition to a cleaner and more sustainable energy future.
We argued that deglobalization was a simplistic and inaccurate way to describe the current trajectory of trade and investment, and we looked ahead at challenges and opportunities for major businesses in a reglobalizing world. While we are optimistic about reglobalization, it will be disruptive to businesses in the near term. This discussion explores what senior executives in multinational corporations (MNC) face in terms of change forces and options, along with examples from actual change programs underway.
The article from the Stanford ABC Hub discusses the efforts of scientists to develop a safe, reliable, and cheap battery for electricity grids. The initiative is led by the Aqueous Battery Consortium, which includes Stanford, SLAC, and 13 other research institutions. The consortium is funded by the U.S. Department of Energy and aims to overcome the limitations of batteries using water as their electrolyte. The project emphasizes multi-disciplinary fundamental research to address long-standing and emerging challenges for rechargeable batteries. The goal is to create a battery that can support the rapid electrification of the economy and society, contributing to a clean energy future.
Events
Certified WBE, MBE & HUB.
Certified by:
- City of Austin, Tx.
- State of Texas
- National Minority Supplier Development Council
© 2024 Big Plan. All rights reserved.
Join The club
Stay informed weekly. Subscribe to Central Texas Global Business Pulse.
Get A Free Consultation
And Estimate
