SoftBank will invest $100M to make Miami a new tech hub | Hacker News Reader

SoftBank will invest $100M to make Miami a new tech hub

businessinsider.com

21 pointswhycombagator31 comments

Lol good luck, there is a large uphill battle here this $100M likely won’t be enough.

For starters in Atlanta one tech hub building cost around $80 million

I have a hard time to see why people would invest in miami since the city is subject to having large issues with rising sea levels in the future.

24 inches in 80 years is the worst case scenario. I don't think this is going to be an unsolvable problem.

It’s 12-36 inches (a big deal at 6 feet elevation) but the bigger issue isn’t the average but the peak during storms and flood events with such water tables. That affects less obvious things like the sewage system, coastal erosion, etc. Billions of dollars in things like sea walls and disaster relief will probably keep Miami around as a major city but it’s not going to be cheap and the uncertainty over the period of a 30 year mortgage will have a big impact on the real estate market.

Here’s a report you might find interesting:

https://www.rff.org/publications/reports/florida-climate-out...

It's solveable but the cost will be huge. The immediate problem is drainage of rainfall. Even a slight rise in sea level will drastically reduce the rate of drainage and lead to frequent flooding. So roads and buildings will have to be elevated and new larger drainage channels dug, with pumps in some places.

Sea walls are inexpensive 800 year old technology.

Sea walls are ineffective with a karst substrate.

Actions speak louder than words. If multi-billion dollar multinationals don't foresee such happening, perhaps you should reevaluate your own premises.

I remember this logic when multi-billion dollar multinationals were issuing and securitizing bad mortgages.

Didn’t pan out like they thought

Worked out well enough for them. Reaped huge windfall profits for years then got bailed out by the government with hardly any consequences.

Multi-billion dollar multinationals that mostly only care about the next quarter’s earning call?

I was talking with a friend who just left NYC today, and we were on the topic of mass exodus from cities. I asked her what her plans were and she said she was unsure. She then listed off a few places and finally said "probably Miami because that's where everyone I know is going."

Now, take this with a grain of salt, but this person has lots, and I mean lots, of friends in NYC. All of which primarily work in the tech, art, finance, or advertising field. I didn't think much of it, and moved on with the conversation. Then, I see this post. My first thought is "Oh, ok. She's just repeating whatever Twitter or media is click-baiting now." Googling Miami and looking through the news, I couldn't find anything except one article.

Now I can't confirm what my friend told me, but this was a casual conversation and she has quite a large social circle. Always keeping up with everyone, and keeping everyone updated about everyone else. Miami might not be a tech hub, but something is happening, and it isn't being noticed. When unnoticed massive change is taking place, opportunities are usually right around the corner.

The mayor of Miami has been pushing hard for the city to be seen as a destination for technology companies. Either we have different definitions of "going unnoticed" or "massive change".

I pointed out that there were almost no articles to be found one this. I also gave my personal anecdote, in addition to this thread. Hence I used "going unnoticed" and "massive change."

I'd like to think I keep up with technology companies and where they're going. Not knowing about Miami, and seeing barely any news on it while I'm specifically searching for it, means to me that it's going unnoticed.

Seems to me like an unlikely venture though with all the hurricanes.

>"You have the brains of Silicon Valley and New York moving to Miami."

Is this true? All I've heard is money is moving there.

Lots of finance shops are moving to South Florida, not sure about SV.

> https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2021-01-12/wall-stre...

The current situation feels, to me, like it can be summed up as:

If you have to keep telling me how great it (Miami) is, it's probably not that great and you're (media, investors, etc) incentivized to convince me it is.

I've only heard of people moving to Texas and Arizona, and that's usually from California.

Anecdotally I’ve seen a few people move to Florida (not necessarily Miami) now that remote work is apparently here to stay.

Icahn and Appaloosa moved to Florida within the last few years.

I not Impressed by anything SoftBank does what with their poor investment choices leading to ARM Holdings potentially being sold off unwisely to Nvidia.

And really 100 million is a drop in the bucket these days! And while folks have taken to investing in new and interesting manners lately I'd love to see Reddit get some interest around taking Arm Holdings Public Via an IPO rather than an Acquisition. And Keep that market unhindered and open access to anyone interested in creating ARM based Processors.

SoftBank is the $100B vision fund. $100M is just 1/1000 of that. This is like if you'd own $100k and invest 100$ in something, that's not even worth a news.

$100 million is still $100 million, and what you can do with even less than that is not the same as what you can do with 1 billion.

Somethings in life don't make sense to compare to ratios.

The absolute amount is tiny but it surprises me that they haven't spent that amount in every major city. Surely there is at least one city out there that has promise and SoftBank would be the one with the first dibs.

Miami has pitiful tech salaries, and no tech focused universities . I somehow doubt that 100m will make a significant difference

On top of that, Florida and especially Miami is not exactly a common destination for tech-immigrants to come to. And I don't think the average SV engineer would want to move from California to Florida.

Don’t they have enforced non-competes there?

What’s that? 10 mansions in Miami? I think by now everyone knows to stay away from anything SoftBank touches.

What's the catch?

...Miami is in Florida

Continuing the tradition of investing in real estate guaranteed to sink

Reply on news.ycombinator.com