Inside Elon Musk's $1.4B Score

Fortune just put up an article that takes a good look at how Tesla's CEO Elon Musk convinced Nevada to pony up $1.4B in exchange for a massive battery plant. Check out all the wheelin' and dealin' that happened.

Still, the victory came at an eye-popping price, generating criticism in the press. Nevada is paying more than $200,000 for each of the 6,500 direct jobs the gigafactory is supposed to create. "I read Nevada’s incentive package," says former New Mexico Gov. Bill Richardson, who negotiated with Tesla for its first assembly plant. "They literally handed over Reno and Las Vegas, lock, stock, and barrel." Richardson is quick to add, in a rueful comment that captures the bind that states find themselves in, "I probably would’ve done the same thing as Governor Sandoval. It’s a lot of jobs in a recessionary period. You create a new kind of economy in your state."