They have sky-high hopes in NC. Now, Boom Supersonic and JetZero just need planes
I’m Brian Gordon, tech reporter for The News & Observer, and this is Open Source, a weekly newsletter on business, labor and technology in North Carolina.
Every startup, at least publicly, is bullish about the future. But a new company projecting to create 14,500 jobs is something unique. Those are the employment heights JetZero aspires to reach in Greensboro at its first plane factory, which the company announced Thursday.
If successful, this will be the biggest state-backed economic development project in North Carolina history.
Now, JetZero just has to make a plane.
The southern California company has designs for an aircraft it hopes can disrupt the manufacturing duopoly of Boeing and Airbus. Called the Z4, it has a blended wing body (BWB) that resembles a flying squirrel or manta ray. The idea is that the flatter body and lighter material composition provides superior fuel efficiency.
JetZero has an Air Force contract and conditional deals with Alaska Airlines and United Airlines (which are both investors too.). The company hopes to fly its demonstrator plane in 2027 and enter the commercial aviation space in 2030.
The incentive North Carolina awarded JetZero gives the company more than a decade to complete its facility at the Piedmont Triad International Airport. JetZero is poised to benefit from $1 billion in state payroll tax rebates — plus hundreds of millions more in local incentives — should it meet and maintain five-figure employment totals for decades to come.
Guilford County and the City of Greensboro combined to offer JetZero additional incentives worth up to $784 million, and the General Assembly committed to allocate $450 million upfront to help build the facility and strengthen surrounding infrastructure.
“North Carolina was first in flight,” Gov. Josh Stein said Thursday during a celebratory event. “We’re also the future of flight.”
Most state-backed incentive deals never reach their original hiring targets. We won’t know about JetZero for a while. But creating another alternative to Boeing doesn’t feel like a bad pitch at the moment.
Boom or bust in Greensboro
Another unproven jet maker seeking to break into the industry from a factory at the Greensboro airport is Boom Supersonic. Last Friday, the Colorado startup commended President Donald Trump for lifting a 1973 restriction on overland supersonic flight, a move Boom CEO Blake Scholl said will make supersonic commercial service “inevitable.”
Sound barrier-breaking test flights in the 1960s left residents below frustrated by window-shaking booms, but recent tech advancements promise to enable supersonic travel without loud noises reaching the ground. Aviation experts say overland restrictions hampered the commercial prospects of the Concorde, the inaugural supersonic passenger airliner which last flew in 2003.
Like JetZero, Boom hasn’t built its final plane. It hasn’t even finished its plane engine. But it does have a building.
Boom also has purchasing agreements with major airlines like United and American. However, it hasn’t convinced Delta Air Lines; in a recent Wall Street Journal feature on Boom, Delta’s CEO Ed Bastian called the company’s planned jet “a very, very expensive asset.”
The Wall Street Journal also reported Boom laid off about half of its 260 employees last fall.
A company spokesperson addressed these layoffs in an email Thursday to The N&O, writing “last year, changes were made to Boom’s workforce in order to accommodate the company’s priority focus on building the Symphony engine and Overture airliner.”
To comply with its North Carolina incentive package, Boom must create at least 561 positions in Greensboro by the end of next year. Then 804 jobs by the end of 2027 and at least 1,585 jobs before 2031.
Its hiring timetable is set. Boom will have to be fast.
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NC State loses federal funding, Raleigh nonprofit loses federal contract
North Carolina State University has received roughly $12 million less federal funding this year compared to this point in 2024, a public records request revealed. From $112 million to $100 million, and from 492 grants to 402. The National Science Foundation this spring terminated 10 NC State grants totally $7.7 million, a public database shows. This targeted research sought to promote more diversity and access in education.
Other Triangle institutions have felt the Trump administration cuts, or efficiencies depending on your viewpoint, between the fellow universities (Duke and UNC), research non-profits (RTI International and FHI 360), and local government campuses (EPA and NIH).
Cuts have hit smaller local organizations too. In April, the Small Business Administration ended a contract for the Raleigh nonprofit RIoT to provide operational support to local businesses working with Internet of Things, or IoT.
IoT is a network of physical objects that communicate data in real time. Think smart traffic lights, smartwatches, or agricultural sensors that detect optimal times to water crops. In the Triangle, IoT is all over the Downtown Cary Park and on Morrisville pickleball courts.
“Please be advised the U.S. Government (USG) is terminating this contract for convenience,” read part of the cancellation letter sent to RIoT executive director Tom Snyder.
RIoT had started this five-year contract in 2024 through the Regional Innovation Clusters program, which funded emerging technologies throughout the county. “From any objective measure of impact, it was a phenomenally successful program,” Snyder said. He cited data that showed every dollar spent on Regional Innovation Cluster programs generated more than $30 in commercial activity.
The government abruptly ended many other RIC contracts this spring. The SBA has not responded to a request for comment on why.
Clearing my cache
- Wolfspeed is laying off more than a third of its new Siler City workforce, 73 employees in total, as the Durham semiconductor supplier continues to cut costs amid rising bankruptcy speculation. The mayor of Siler City says he doesn’t blame the company, but he does blame someone.
- VinFast, the Vietnamese electric vehicle company that might build a North Carolina factory by 2028, reported losing $712 million in the first three months of 2025. This was higher than the same period last year. VinFast did see quarterly revenue growth, rising to $656 million, though its home market still accounted for much of its sales.
- Anduril, a $30.5 billion defense tech startup, was on 60 Minutes last month showcasing Fury, its unmanned, autonomous aircraft that can engage enemies using AI. Fury was developed by the Morrisville firm Blue Force Technologies, which Anduril acquired in 2023.
- Starbucks workers in two North Carolina cities will vote this month on whether to unionize. Staff at a Fayetteville store will hold an election Monday while employees at a Chapel Hill location on East Franklin St. will decide June 30. North Carolina has the nation’s lowest union membership rate, though some local Starbucks workers have recently approved unions.
- A Duke University staff member has started a petition calling on the school’s highest-paid officials, including university president Vincent Price, to take 25% pay cuts. Last week, Price said Duke would begin offering faculty voluntary separation agreements ahead of likely staff layoffs as it faces financial constraints from Trump administration policies.
National Tech Happenings
President Trump plans to extend the TikTok ban deadline for a third time.
- Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. is replacing all 17 members of the CDC’s vaccine advisory committee, saying the move would help restore public trust “above any specific pro- or anti-vaccine agenda.” Critics of this move include Dr. Mandy Cohen, former CDC director under President Joe Biden who also headed North Carolina’s Department of Health and Human Services under then-Gov. Roy Cooper during the pandemic. She told ABC News that “Secretary Kennedy’s unprecedented action spreads confusion and casts doubt on transparent public health processes that protect Americans.”
- Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg is personally recruiting for his company’s new research lab, which hopes to achieve AI “superintelligence” that surpasses what the human brain can achieve. His company has reportedly offered its hiring targets seven-to-nine-figure compensation packages.
Thanks for reading!
This story was originally published June 13, 2025 at 7:00 AM with the headline "They have sky-high hopes in NC. Now, Boom Supersonic and JetZero just need planes."
