Investor Watch: June 27, 2024

DIRECTORY

Bookmark this resource full of leadership names and website information for economic development organizations across the nation and abroad.

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Just in time for the Fourth of July, the consultancy’s ranking of the principal cities in the country’s largest metro areas with population of 500,000 or more is based on public perception combined with factors correlated with attracting prime age population, visitor expenditure and/or business formation. (Watch for the 2024 edition of Site Selection’s “America’s Best Counties” to make its debut July 1.)

Map courtesy of SMU DataArts

Last October, SMU DataArts, the National Center for Arts Research, based at Southern Methodist University in Dallas, released its 8th Arts Vibrancy Index, “which identifies the 40 most arts-vibrant communities in the United States through an analysis of the level of supply, demand and government support for the arts in more than 900 communities across the country.” As reported by Site Selection staff in “Business Comes to Life,” the 2023 Colorado economic development guide produced by Conway Custom Content, the Centennial State outshone all others in the 2022 edition of this index with four communities among the top 40.

The state has held serve in the latest edition, with the metro areas of Denver, Boulder, Steamboat Springs and Glenwood Springs accounting for 10% of all ranked communities in the nation, ahead of such top arts-supporting states as New York and California with three communities apiece.

“For organizations, funders, local citizens, and public officials, the Arts Vibrancy Index is a powerful resource that leverages data-driven evidence to illuminate how the arts contribute to an area’s economy and public life,” said SMU DataArts Director Dr. Zannie Voss in the organization’s press release last fall.

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AWS last fall announced what it called “the next generation of two AWS-designed chip families — AWS Graviton4 and AWS Trainium2 — delivering advancements in price performance and energy efficiency” for customer workloads including machine learning and generative AI applications.

Image courtesy of AWS

Amazon Web Services yesterday published a blog by Vice President of Infrastructure Prasad Kalyanaraman examining four ways AWS is optimizing its infrastructure, including data centers, to support generative AI. “AI is now a multibillion-dollar revenue run rate business for AWS,” he writes. “There is no compression algorithm for experience, and since we’ve been building large-scale data centers for more than 15 years and GPU-based (graphics processing units) servers for more than 12 years, we have a massive existing footprint of AI infrastructure.”

Among the sidebars in the post is an intriguing look inside an AWS data center in eastern Oregon from Data Center Technician Lead Fidel Contreras. The company two weeks ago also announced a $230 million commitment for startups around the world to accelerate the creation of generative AI applications.

Palazzo Mondadori in Milan was conceived and constructed between 1968 and 1975.

Photo by DSL Studio (Delfino Sisto Legnani, Melania Delle Grave) courtesy of CRA

How does Italy’s top book publisher update for the 21st century? It turns to a team led by design and innovation firm CRA-Carlo Ratti Associati, which in collaboration with the late Italo Rota (1953-2024) and Maestro Technologies renovated Palazzo Mondadori in Milan, owned by Generali Real Estate. “The building is considered one of Oscar Niemeyer’s masterpieces, and it hosts the headquarters of the Mondadori Group, the leading Italian book publisher,” the firm explained in a release this week. Palazzo Mondadori was conceived and constructed between 1968 and 1975. Among other aspects, CRA refurbished over 1,300 units of the building’s original modular furnishings across the 20,000-sq.-m. (215,285-sq.-ft.) main workspace. “In order to get us out of the comfort of our pajama Zoom calls, office spaces need to become more like playgrounds,” said Carlo Ratti, founding partner of CRA-Carlo Ratti Associati and curator of the Biennale Architettura 2025.

CRA’s connection to architect Niemeyer includes work with EY in 2020 on the master plan for the new 10-million-sq.-ft. BIOTIC tech and innovation district in Brasilia that blends with the original Plano Piloto UNESCO World Heritage site designed by Niemeyer and Lucio Costa. The futuristic Brazilian capital was a favorite point of interest for Site Selection Founder McKinley Conway from the time it was founded in 1960.