The Council’s new initiative—Competitiveness Conversations Across America—aims to illuminate new cutting-edge strategies and pathways to broaden the geography of U.S. innovation beyond the coasts and deepen the demography of high-tech driven prosperity. This national conversation kicked-off at the end of April in Nashville, with co-hosts Vanderbilt University Chancellor Daniel Diermeier and University of Tennessee, Knoxville Chancellor Donde Plowman. More than 250 leaders and speakers came together to highlight Tennessee’s ingredients for innovation in energy, advanced mobility, and manufacturing.
Tennessee is booming, manufacturing is humming, the high-tech sector is buzzing, per capita income is rising, and the population is surging. The State has cultivated an environment that attracts investment, fuels business growth, and drives manufacturing, including its cornerstone automotive industry. Prospects for the future are brighter than ever as the State lays the groundwork for a big stake in 21st century mobility. Leaders in the conversion highlighted some key strategic factors playing a crucial role in co-creating a future bursting with potential.
Leadership is broad and deep. While current and former governors have been flagbearers, engagement in building manufacturing and innovation capacity is broad—across industry, academia, and government—and deep—from the state capital down to mayors’ offices and city halls. Leaders on both axes are aligned on a vision of an innovation-based future for Tennessee and believe that a win for one region or city is a win for all because it unlocks new opportunities and new potential. Efforts to build innovation ecosystems are undergirded by a web of diverse partnerships crossing these sectors. As Governor Lee noted, the State’s flag represents the historical “Grand Divisions of Tennessee”—East, Middle and West—but it ought to symbolize the State’s true and future focus on Grand Alliances; as Chancellor Diermeier called it, “Radical Collaboration;” and, as Chancellor Plowman exhorted, “People, Places, and Partnerships.”
A good place to be. Leaders of companies that brought operations to the State said a key factor in their decision was that Tennessee is a good place to work and raise a family. Its natural assets enhance its attractiveness as a place to live. No state income tax and a good business environment are added benefits. Education and training on-ramps meet people where they are in their careers and offer many options for attaining knowledge and skills needed for advancement.
Focus on the future. Business leaders stressed the importance of the State’s vision for the future. These companies were considering where they were going to invest billions of dollars and grow in the decades ahead. They wanted assurance that the State’s infrastructure, workforce pipeline, R&D, and energy could support that growth and their supply chains.
Putting aside risks to their next election, Tennessee’s political leaders championed investments to enable future opportunities. For example, in 2021, Ford picked Tennessee for its new electric truck factory, a $5.6 billion investment called Blue Oval City. That site was prepared for economic development years ago and was ready when Ford came knocking. Chattanooga’s public utility offers 1G fiber internet for $67 month, a controversial investment viewed as risky at the time. But that fiber attracted many people to Chattanooga who were teleworking during the pandemic, helped attract business investment, and is serving as a quantum testbed.
Now companies need new energy-intensive data center capacity for generative AI, edge, and cloud computing to support computation on vehicles and vehicle connectivity, and Google needs to support training of 3-5 large language models. TVA is working with Google to help better plan around capacity constraints, and working on ways to get more out of the transmission lines they already have.
Educators and trainers focused on developing the workforce businesses need. K-12, higher education, and workforce training providers partner with industry to develop the workers businesses need. For example, to support its new truck factory, Ford worked with university leaders to identify needed competencies and tailor curricula to meet those needs. Existing secondary and post-secondary programs were scanned, and new programming developed to close gaps. Oracle is moving its headquarters to Nashville to capitalize on the state’s burgeoning health care sector. Oracle plans to embed with local high schools and universities to build training curricula and internship programs that will equip students to hit the ground running at Oracle immediately after graduating.
Building on current assets as a springboard to future industries. For example, a coalition of more than 100 public and private entities—including more than 50 companies and every technical school, two-year college, and four-year university in the state—is working to make Tennessee a destination for mobility innovation. Different entities are developing different parts of the ecosystem including research capabilities, the supplier base, and regulation.
Catching up with their new reality. Tennessee’s efforts have brought snowballing success but also growing pains. The State faces challenges to scale up affordable housing, infrastructure, the workforce, and university capacity. With AI deployments and data center growth, energy demands on the grid are rising, but energy infrastructure expansion faces litigation and permitting challenges. Nuclear energy is on the table with more than 150 nuclear-related companies within 50 miles of Knoxville. But the U.S. ability to build new nuclear has atrophied; we need a trained workforce, project and supply chain management, advanced materials, and technology solutions to unlock a new nuclear future.
The State’s workforce needs are changing. Tennessee’s automotive sector is leaning in on EVs, which need relatively fewer factory workers, but its move to the intersection of computation and vehicles requires more skilled IT workers and digital technicians, and workforce development programs must adjust to that shift. With rapid integration of AI into company operations, more workers with four-year degrees are needed. The state’s universities have increased enrollment across the system but, to further scale, they need to build more academic buildings.
University of Tennessee faculty are doing research at a level they have never experienced before. And with a national focus on building innovation hubs, Federal R&D granting agencies increasingly seek to fund R&D projects that are aligned with economic development efforts and engage industry. To be competitive for this funding, universities must go beyond the single investigator approach, and collaborate with industry and state innovation initiatives.
Scale-up New Models. Too many communities and people across the United States are not part of or benefitting from America’s leadership in innovation or our growing high-tech economy. By highlighting places like Tennessee, we can amplify new models of success for scale-up in states, regions, and these communities across America.