6 ms·

Well, let's be clear about the timeline. Silevo was planning a factory in upstate New York, and the State of New York was planning to invest $225 million in th

Well, let's be clear about the timeline. Silevo was planning a factory in upstate New York, and the State of New York was planning to invest $225 million in that project. In June 2014, SolarCity agreed to acquire Silevo. Three months later, with Elon Musk's personal involvement, the Cuomo Administration agreed to increase their investment to $750 million, in a much-expanded deal. Construction of the factory began under SolarCity ownership in September 2014. Tesla acquired SolarCity in November 2016. One month later, Tesla announced that Panasonic would assemble the solar modules at Gigafactory 2/New York.

apotecaryman 7y ago
Based on your timeline, it seems that Tesla was already, at least partially engaged since SolarCity's acquisition of Silevo.
jiofih 7y ago
Why would have Elon Musk been involved? Did he actively participate in SolarCity management before the acquisition?
- gowld 7y ago
  Yes. Solar City was a Musk (nee Rive) family business from the start. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SolarCity#History https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SolarCity#History > SolarCity was founded in 2006 by brothers Peter and Lyndon Rive, based on a suggestion for a solar company concept by their cousin, Elon Musk, who is the chairman and helped start the company. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lyndon_Rive https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lyndon_Rive > Rive is a cousin of SolarCity investor and entrepreneur Elon Musk, as their mothers are twins (That means that Rive and Musk are genetically half-siblings.)
  - csours 7y ago
    > (That means that Rive and Musk are genetically half-siblings.) Apropos of nothing, I'm now imagining a world with forms of address based on the natural logarithm of shared genetic material.
    - golergka 7y ago
      I come from an old Jewish family that's supposed to come King David, and I recently met a girl who comes from another family like that (rabbinical sources describe a dozen or so families with reasonable claims to Davidic lineage). We used to joke that we're longest removed siblings ever, and now I'm curious about what that natural logarithm would actually look like.
    - jandrese 7y ago
      Isn't this roughly how people talk about their relationship with Native American tribes? They don't do the log2 math, but they're happy to hit you with the fraction.
      - somesortofsystm 7y ago
        Certainly, First Nation People of Australia had a language of their own for this: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Australian_Aboriginal_kinship https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Australian_Aboriginal_kinship
      - roywiggins 7y ago
        You're probably thinking of "blood quantum." It's... complicated. https://www.npr.org/sections/codeswitch/2018/02/09/583987261/so-what-exactly-is-blood-quantum https://www.npr.org/sections/codeswitch/2018/02/09/583987261...
    - irrational 7y ago
      There is an app that will tell you and another person with the same app how closely related you are and will show the ancestry chain between the two of you. It turns out the my wife and I are 10th cousins (common great-whatever grandparents in the 1600s). I started calling her my cousin-wife, but she didn't think it was funny, so I had to stop ;-)
      - denni9th 7y ago
        What is the app called?
  - ajross 7y ago
    Wait wait, the evidence for "Musk was personally involved" was "his cousin did it"? I mean, it's hard to tell whether there's any wrongdoing here to allege at all, honestly. But to the extent there is: I think the upthread question is still unanswered. What does this have to do with Tesla?
    - mattkrause 7y ago
      Well, that and he (apparently) suggested it to them. I think the cousin thing is just explaining why they were interacting at all.
jandrese 7y ago
So the whole project is stuck in development hell? Is this going to be "Gigafactory/2"? I guess the question I need to ask is "is this project dead or on hold?"
NotSammyHagar 7y ago
Interesting info. If they got 750 million statewide investment, the factory used $700 million of it then? 50 mil left over? I hate state investments in businesses via direct or tax cuts. But this couldn't be worse than Washington state's massive tax cuts for boeing, which proceeded to move more production and jobs to their east coast factory right after they got the tax brake.
- at-fates-hands 7y ago
  > But this couldn't be worse than Washington state's massive tax cuts for boeing, I see your Boeing deal and raise you one Wisconsin deal with Foxconn that will cost the state $4.5 billion and thousands of jobs that most likely never existed.
  - NotSammyHagar 7y ago
    okay, you win, that's probably worse. That foxconn deal looked like it could end up with just a few dozen new jobs.
  - onlyrealcuzzo 7y ago
    Is there a worse tax deal a state has ever made? Anyone?

apotecaryman 7y ago

Based on your timeline, it seems that Tesla was already, at least partially engaged since SolarCity's acquisition of Silevo.

jiofih 7y ago

Why would have Elon Musk been involved? Did he actively participate in SolarCity management before the acquisition?

gowld 7y ago
Yes. Solar City was a Musk (nee Rive) family business from the start. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SolarCity#History https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SolarCity#History > SolarCity was founded in 2006 by brothers Peter and Lyndon Rive, based on a suggestion for a solar company concept by their cousin, Elon Musk, who is the chairman and helped start the company. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lyndon_Rive https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lyndon_Rive > Rive is a cousin of SolarCity investor and entrepreneur Elon Musk, as their mothers are twins (That means that Rive and Musk are genetically half-siblings.)
- csours 7y ago
  > (That means that Rive and Musk are genetically half-siblings.) Apropos of nothing, I'm now imagining a world with forms of address based on the natural logarithm of shared genetic material.
  - golergka 7y ago
    I come from an old Jewish family that's supposed to come King David, and I recently met a girl who comes from another family like that (rabbinical sources describe a dozen or so families with reasonable claims to Davidic lineage). We used to joke that we're longest removed siblings ever, and now I'm curious about what that natural logarithm would actually look like.
  - jandrese 7y ago
    Isn't this roughly how people talk about their relationship with Native American tribes? They don't do the log2 math, but they're happy to hit you with the fraction.
    - somesortofsystm 7y ago
      Certainly, First Nation People of Australia had a language of their own for this: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Australian_Aboriginal_kinship https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Australian_Aboriginal_kinship
    - roywiggins 7y ago
      You're probably thinking of "blood quantum." It's... complicated. https://www.npr.org/sections/codeswitch/2018/02/09/583987261/so-what-exactly-is-blood-quantum https://www.npr.org/sections/codeswitch/2018/02/09/583987261...
  - irrational 7y ago
    There is an app that will tell you and another person with the same app how closely related you are and will show the ancestry chain between the two of you. It turns out the my wife and I are 10th cousins (common great-whatever grandparents in the 1600s). I started calling her my cousin-wife, but she didn't think it was funny, so I had to stop ;-)
    - denni9th 7y ago
      What is the app called?
- ajross 7y ago
  Wait wait, the evidence for "Musk was personally involved" was "his cousin did it"? I mean, it's hard to tell whether there's any wrongdoing here to allege at all, honestly. But to the extent there is: I think the upthread question is still unanswered. What does this have to do with Tesla?
  - mattkrause 7y ago
    Well, that and he (apparently) suggested it to them. I think the cousin thing is just explaining why they were interacting at all.

jandrese 7y ago

So the whole project is stuck in development hell? Is this going to be "Gigafactory/2"? I guess the question I need to ask is "is this project dead or on hold?"

NotSammyHagar 7y ago

Interesting info. If they got 750 million statewide investment, the factory used $700 million of it then? 50 mil left over? I hate state investments in businesses via direct or tax cuts. But this couldn't be worse than Washington state's massive tax cuts for boeing, which proceeded to move more production and jobs to their east coast factory right after they got the tax brake.

at-fates-hands 7y ago
> But this couldn't be worse than Washington state's massive tax cuts for boeing, I see your Boeing deal and raise you one Wisconsin deal with Foxconn that will cost the state $4.5 billion and thousands of jobs that most likely never existed.
- NotSammyHagar 7y ago
  okay, you win, that's probably worse. That foxconn deal looked like it could end up with just a few dozen new jobs.
- onlyrealcuzzo 7y ago
  Is there a worse tax deal a state has ever made? Anyone?