Open Source: Raleigh left off White House list of tech hubs. It’s actually a compliment.

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.

On Monday, the White House unveiled a list of 31 regional technology hubs.

Surely Raleigh made the cut? Nope. How about Durham or Chapel Hill? Nope again. In fact, all of North Carolina was shut out.

The list isn’t just symbolic; the designated hubs are eligible to compete for up to $75 million in federal CHIPS Act funding. The City of Raleigh even applied for the program, submitting a joint proposal with the Central Pines Regional Council and the Wireless Reach Center.

“Unfortunately, we were not selected as an awardee,” said John Holden, Raleigh’s Smart City Manager.

Fewer than 10% of the 370 applications were approved. So Raleigh shouldn’t be too surprised.

And while it might seem like an affront to exclude the Triangle from any list of top tech hubs, the White House didn’t intend to pick the likes of Raleigh, Boston, Austin or the Bay Area. The program is meant to promote growth outside of big cities.

“For too long, economic growth and opportunity has clustered in a few cities on the coasts,” the White House said when declaring the winners.

Among the tech hubs are Tulsa, Kansas City, Missoula and central Indiana.

“Tech Hubs awardees were selected to represent the full diversity of America,” the Biden administration said.

While more federal funding would be nice, perhaps it’s a nod to Raleigh and Durham’s growth that they joined other large established tech zones that were left off. Boston is a more prestigious tech bedfellow than Tulsa, no offense.

But I don’t know why no North Carolina city made the cut. Come on White House.

On to the rest of this week’s news.

Raleigh’s Red Hat had a pretty impressive record going

Since IBM acquired the software giant in 2019, Red Hat has delivered double-digit revenue growth every fiscal quarter. That streak has ended, as IBM announced Wednesday that Red Hat recorded an 8% revenue jump this summer.

Still pretty good, especially considering IBM’s overall revenue only rose 3.5%. And some sectors of Red Hat’s business like Ansible and OpenShift made big-time gains.

But overall, Red Hat came in below expectations. And no one’s been able to say that for a while.

North Carolina approves one of the year’s largest job agreements

The Indian company Epsilon Advanced Materials has pledged to create 500 jobs near Wilmington. The company’s CEO told The N&O why North Carolina was the right spot for his business, which manufactures a key component in lithium-ion batteries.

North Carolina is already invested in the future prospects of lithium ion. There’s the incoming Toyota battery plant near Greensboro and the ongoing efforts to mine lithium near Charlotte.

Short Stuff: What went wrong at AgBiome?

• Last week, I reported that an entire Triangle tech company is on the verge of disappearing. This week, I spoke to the CEOs and employees of Durham’s AgBiome to ask what went wrong — and what might come next.

• North Carolina Attorney General and gubernatorial candidate Josh Stein joined a large multi-state coalition in suing Meta, alleging its social media platforms (Facebook, Instagram) are designed to be addictive to young people.

• Don’t think North Carolina isn’t seeing any CHIPS Act dollars. It’s poised to see quite a bit actually. North Carolina A&T will partner with NC State for a microelectronics project funded by the major federal tech spending bill.

National Tech Happenings

• Speaking of chips... Chinese companies race to procure Nvidia chips after latest U.S. restrictions. Nvidia has a few hundred employees in the Triangle by the way.

• And speaking of Meta… Facebook’s parent company reported strong earnings this week. Yet its stock price fell. Hmmm.

• Were product reviews published by a major newspaper network written by a human or AI? There’s a debate.

Thanks for reading!

Open Source

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