Reno isn’t becoming the new Silicon Valley. Instead, Reno is finding its own space in the ever growing tech world, and they’re doing it their way.
There are a lot of reasons that nobody thinks of Reno, Nevada when they think of booming industries. The city is only a 4-hour drive away from the Bay Area, and it doesn’t draw the same attention as the much larger Las Vegas area.
Instead of seeing the next metropolis, people see a small city (“the Biggest Little City in the World,” actually) that happens to be on their way to Lake Tahoe, the Bay Area or Las Vegas. But Reno is carving out its own little space in the tech world, and in doing so, they’ve created a promising future of job growth for the next decade, and possibly longer; in 10 years, don’t be surprised if your hipster friend says they’re moving to Reno.
The city’s big break came in 2014 with the securement of Tesla’s “gigafactory.” The so-called gigafactory was designed to produce 500,000 Tesla Model 3 cars by 2020, and more specifically the batteries that run the cars. However, back when the factory was originally planned, there were not enough batteries produced in the entire world to fuel 500,000 new Teslas.
The gigafactory was Tesla CEO Elon Musk’s solution. The 5.5 million square foot factory is estimated to bring in $100 billion in revenue to the Reno area over the next 20 years. Both Amazon and Apple, Inc. have facilities in the area as well, with Amazon moving a distribution warehouse to Reno and Apple maintaining their cloud-computing facility there. In order to stay connected, Switch is planning on building SUPERLOOP, a constant communication line that will link Reno to Las Vegas, Los Angeles and San Francisco.
The large influx of business isn’t the only thing driving Reno’s growth. Reno is near the popular Burning Man festival, and as a result many of its fans connect with the city. The city’s proximity to Lake Tahoe and the Bay Area also helps, and why would someone pay over a million dollars for a home in the Bay Area when they can do the same job from nearby, and much cheaper, in Reno? After all, there has to be a reason that Taylor Swift is buying a home in the forgotten Nevada city.
In a weird way, Reno is becoming a tech city without actually drawing any direct tech business. Instead, they’re becoming the city that makes tech possible. While Silicon Valley will always get the glory from new apps and Apple’s newest product, Reno will be the city behind the magic. It isn’t as sexy, but it works and it will make Reno a successful and constantly growing city for a long time.
Photo Credit D Ramey Logan
