General Electric Co (GE) chief executive Jeff Immelt is pledging to spend US$50 million on a series of initiatives in Boston, including US$25 million on government schools, as his company prepares to move its headquarters to the city.
The announcement came as Immelt joined Massachusetts Governor Charlie Baker and Boston Mayor Marty Walsh on Monday to unveil more details about the company’s decision to move its headquarters from Fairfield, Connecticut.
GE is to occupy two buildings and build a third in Boston’s Fort Point neighborhood.
Photo: AP
Immelt said the move would create about 4,000 temporary and permanent jobs.
Immelt said the company plans to move into temporary offices in August and ultimately bring 800 new workers to the area.
He predicted the move would inject more than US$1 billion into the local economy.
Photo: AP
Immelt said the company was drawn to Boston because of its determination not to lose out to Silicon Valley on the growth of the “industrial Internet.”
“The other thing I like about Boston is that you have a chip on your shoulder,” Immelt said. “I love that.”
Baker said GE and Massachusetts are a good match.
He said that 40 percent of workers in the state are part of the “innovation economy.”
Baker predicted that other companies would relocate to the Boston area in part because GE is doing so.
As part of the US$50 million package unveiled on Monday, Immelt said GE would fund a career laboratory to help prepare students for jobs using advanced manufacturing technology.
The company would also spend US$15 million on community health centers and US$10 million to expand diversity in the healthcare, science and technology fields.
Protesters gathered outside the press conference to highlight the millions of US dollars in tax breaks and public incentives, including the prospect of free rent on city-owned land, used to lure the company to Boston.
Susan Strelec, a 70-year-old protester from the city’s Jamaica Plain neighborhood, braved snow, wind and icy sidewalks in front of the high-rise office building where the press conference was being held to voice her concerns.
Strelec said the city and state should be more focused on improving schools, shelters for homeless people and fixing public transportation rather than offering sweet deals to big corporations.
“I hate injustice. I hate corporate greed. I hate stupidity,” said Strelec, a member of the Massachusetts Alliance of HUD Tenants, one of the groups protesting the agreement.
Walsh defended the deal, saying it would end up generating more tax revenue by renovating the two warehouses on city-owned land, rather than letting them remain as they are for the next 10 to 15 years.
Walsh also pointed to the US$25 million pledge to Boston schools by GE, which he said was a direct result of the deal.
MARKET LEADERSHIP: Investors are flocking to Nvidia, drawn by the company’s long-term fundamntals, dominant position in the AI sector, and pricing and margin power Two years after Nvidia Corp made history by becoming the first chipmaker to achieve a US$1 trillion market capitalization, an even more remarkable milestone is within its grasp: becoming the first company to reach US$4 trillion. After the emergence of China’s DeepSeek (深度求索) sent the stock plunging earlier this year and stoked concerns that outlays on artificial intelligence (AI) infrastructure were set to slow, Nvidia shares have rallied back to a record. The company’s biggest customers remain full steam ahead on spending, much of which is flowing to its computing systems. Microsoft Corp, Meta Platforms Inc, Amazon.com Inc and Alphabet Inc are
Luxury fashion powerhouse Prada SpA has acknowledged the ancient Indian roots of its new sandal design after the debut of the open-toe footwear sparked a furor among Indian artisans and politicians thousands of miles from the catwalk in Italy. Images from Prada’s fashion show in Milan last weekend showed models wearing leather sandals with a braided design that resembled handmade Kolhapuri slippers with designs dating back to the 12th century. A wave of criticism in the media and from lawmakers followed over the Italian brand’s lack of public acknowledgement of the Indian sandal design, which is named after a city in the
INVESTOR RESILIENCE? An analyst said that despite near-term pressures, foreign investors tend to view NT dollar strength as a positive signal for valuation multiples Morgan Stanley has flagged a potential 10 percent revenue decline for Taiwan’s tech hardware sector this year, as a sharp appreciation of the New Taiwan dollar begins to dent the earnings power of major exporters. In what appears to be the first such warning from a major foreign brokerage, the US investment bank said the currency’s strength — fueled by foreign capital inflows and expectations of US interest rate cuts — is compressing profit margins for manufacturers with heavy exposure to US dollar-denominated revenues. The local currency has surged about 10 percent against the greenback over the past quarter and yesterday breached
The US overtaking China as Taiwan’s top export destination could boost industrial development and wage growth, given the US is a high-income economy, an economist said yesterday. However, Taiwan still needs to diversify its export markets due to the unpredictability of US President Donald Trump’s administration, said Chiou Jiunn-rong (邱俊榮), an economics professor at National Central University. Taiwan’s exports soared to a record US$51.74 billion last month, driven by strong demand for artificial intelligence (AI) products and continued orders, with information and communication technology (ICT) and audio/video products leading all sectors. The US reclaimed its position as Taiwan’s top export market, accounting for
RSS