I’m Brian Gordon, reporter for The News & Observer, and this is Open Source, a weekly newsletter focusing on business, labor and technology in North Carolina.

When discussing VinFast’s goals in North Carolina, it’s quickest to just give the headline figures. The electric car company from Vietnam pledges to create 7,500 jobs and invest more than $4 billion at an incoming assembly and battery plant in eastern Chatham County. If VinFast reaches these benchmarks, the company is poised to receive more than $1.25 billion in taxpayer-funded incentives and other benefits.

It wants to do all this by 2027.

But the agreements VinFast signed with North Carolina and Chatham County contain exceptions, extensions and contingencies if VinFast doesn’t quite live up to its initial promises. Which, by the way, is what happens with most North Carolina projects backed by taxpayer incentives.

It’s time to start paying attention. VinFast’s hiring clock begins this year, as the company is committed to hiring close to 2,000 workers by the end of 2024.

I did my best to break down VinFast’s billion-dollar-plus incentive deal — plus an extra, unique agreement North Carolina has to purchase the Chatham megasite from the carmaker should VinFast fall behind its hiring and investment schedule.

What happens if the factory doesn’t open in 2025? What if the company only hires 6,000 workers? Or 3,500? Or fewer?

Perhaps VinFast will create 7,500 jobs and few of these answers will matter. If so, North Carolina will cheer the success of its first major auto assembly plant and communities across Central North Carolina will surely benefit.

But if anything short of that happens, it might be worth bookmarking this article for future reference.

Onto the rest of this week’s news:

Big Blue ‘scaling back’ its use of H-1Bs

The N&O has started a Reality Check series to provide answers to readers’ questions. Diving into the VinFast incentive deal was one example. Another of my stories this week looked at IBM’s use of the high-skilled visa work program called H-1B.

IBM is both one of the largest Triangle-area employers and among the top employers of foreign H-1B holders. It received the 15th most visa approvals in 2023, though the company said it has been “scaling back” its H-1B hiring. Several North Carolina-based businesses — Bank of America, Lowe’s, Truist, First Citizens Bank — each received more than 200 H-1B approvals last year.

The H-1B debate boils down to whether companies truly need high-skilled visa workers to fill specialized roles or if, for various reasons, they prefer these foreign workers over their available U.S. counterparts. The companies say the former, but some academic research suggests the latter may be true.

With tech layoffs now more widespread, the dialogue around the visa program may intensify.

• One more thing: In many states, including North Carolina, top beneficiaries of H-1B employees are school districts. It’s well documented that labor shortages exist in this sector. The question is just whether major corporations legitimately face a labor crunch. Last year, Amazon, Google, Microsoft, Meta and Apple were all in the top 10 for H-1B visa approvals. Many did layoffs.

If you have a North Carolina tech/business/labor question for me, please don’t hesitate to reach out.

Boston is getting scared of us

The Boston Globe reports the Research Triangle could dent Massachusetts’ “dominance” over the biotech industry. The story opened with a description of the two large life science hubs facing each other in Morrisville, which we wrote about last spring.

References to this budding Northeast versus Southeast rivalry aren’t new. “Cambridge and Boston better look out because North Carolina is coming,” Gov. Roy Cooper crowed in 2021 when the biopharma company Amgen decided to come to Holly Springs. Today, North Carolina has more than 800 life science companies which combined employ around 75,000 workers.

Here’s a picture of the biotech hubs N&O photographer Ethan Hyman took out of an airplane window(!):

A lifeline for startups

North Carolina startup founders have floundered since a recent change to the federal tax code caused their tax bills to soar. For research-intensive companies with little to no revenue, having grant payments counted as income poises an existential threat. But major tax reform working through Congress would provide a lifeline.

And good news for these startups: The legislation easily passed in the U.S. House this week with bipartisan support. Only one of North Carolina’s 14 representatives voted against it (Republican state attorney general candidate Dan Bishop).

But now the bill moves to the Senate where its passage isn’t assured. North Carolina’s two senators aren’t supporting it yet. Not because of the startup tax relief provision, which both Thom Tillis and Ted Budd back, but because the bill includes other sweeping reforms and payment mechanisms that give them pause.

Short Stuff: Get back to the office, some say

Good union news! Two dozen maintenance workers at Duke Raleigh Hospital will be represented by the International Union of Operating Engineers after an election win last week.

Bad union news! North Carolina was again the second-least unionized state in the country in 2023, topping only South Carolina, according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics.

Wolfspeed says production will begin at its new Siler City factory early next year. And employee training classes could begin as early as next month. But the Durham-based semiconductor chipmaker continues to see its stock drop.

Albemarle, the world’s biggest lithium miner, is cutting jobs and delaying projects to save $750 million. Cuts at the Charlotte-based company occur as the price of lithium has fallen.

Get back to the office. Bank of America sent “letters of education” to workers who aren’t showing up to the office enough. IBM is also mandating managers either more frequently report in person or quit, Bloomberg reports.

National Tech Happenings

Elon Musk says his startup Neuralink implanted its first device inside a human. The ultimate goal is to enable users to control outside devices (phones, laptops, etc.) with their brains.

A tech industry group representing Google, TikTok and Meta is fighting state laws that seek to protect children online.

Recent mass layoffs at the Los Angeles Times and other media outlets have reignited discussions about whether the Googles and Metas of the world should compensate news organizations.

Thanks for reading!