When I met Governor Brian Kemp in February 2025, Georgia was already one of the most aggressive American states in the competition for international investment. What I did not know was that, during the same trip to Munich, Kemp was quietly pursuing one of the biggest prizes of his governorship.
In a small hotel conference room during the Munich Security Conference, Kemp and Georgia Economic Development Commissioner Pat Wilson met Audi CEO Gernot Döllner and his leadership team. Georgians arrived with a pitch book for a prepared industrial site in Peach County. What followed was two years of negotiations.
On October 24, 2026, the quiet courtship became very public. Döllner stood beside Donald Trump at a Republican campaign rally in Perry, Georgia, as Audi announced roughly $4 billion for its first U.S. manufacturing plant, 4,500 jobs and capacity for 200,000 vehicles annually. Production is planned for 2031.
In Germany, much of the controversy immediately centered on whether an Audi CEO should appear at a Trump rally.
That is a legitimate question. It is also the less interesting one.
The better question is what actually brought Audi to Georgia.
Why America? Trump changed the arithmetic
Trump immediately presented the investment as vindication of his trade policy. That claim should not simply be dismissed as campaign rhetoric.
Audi itself states that producing in the United States reduces exposure to trade and currency risks. Reuters reported that U.S. tariffs cost Audi about €1.2 billion in 2025. For a manufacturer importing vehicles into one of the world’s largest premium-car markets, the economic case for localization has therefore changed substantially. Audi therefore describes North America as a future third pillar of its production network alongside Europe and China.
Tariffs did not select a field in Peach County. But they helped strengthen the question of whether Audi should manufacture in America at all.
That distinction matters. Trump helps explain “why the United States?” He does not, by himself, explain “why Georgia?”
This is where Brian Kemp enters the story.
Why Georgia? Kemp built a product, not merely a sales pitch
Kemp’s economic-development model is built around a simple idea: do not wait for an investor before assembling what the investor will need.
Peach County is almost a physical expression of that strategy. In 2022, Georgia and local authorities purchased more than 1,100 developable acres for what became the Middle Georgia Megasite, which has since grown to roughly 1,500 acres. Georgia did not wait for Audi before preparing it. Due diligence was completed in advance and industrial utilities brought adjacent to the property. The site lies five miles from Interstate 75, with Norfolk Southern Class I rail running along its northern and western sides. Savannah and Brunswick are reachable by rail in under five hours, while Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport is about 90 minutes away.
The point is not simply that Georgia found Audi a good piece of land. Georgia had created an industrial product before it had a customer for it.
The same logic extends to labor, where Georgia has built one of its clearest competitive advantages. Georgia Quick Start, administered through the Technical College System of Georgia, provides qualifying investors with customized workforce training at no cost and has been ranked the United States’ top workforce-development training program for fourteen
consecutive years through 2024. For Audi, it will develop a company-specific curriculum and dedicated training facility, while local technical colleges will begin preparing workers before that facility is completed. Georgia has already used the model with manufacturers including Kia and Hyundai.
This is what distinguishes Kemp’s model from the familiar Republican formula of low taxes and light regulation. Georgia does not merely improve its business climate and advertise the advantages it already possesses. It prepares the site, builds the workforce, coordinates the infrastructure, clears the bottlenecks – and only then takes the package to the investor.
Why Munich? Kemp became the Chief Salesman
The most overlooked part of the story sits more than 7,000 kilometers from Peach County.
Georgia has maintained economic representation in Europe since 1973, but Kemp has treated Germany less as a diplomatic relationship than as a hunting ground for investment. In January 2020, at the start of his second year in office, he personally traveled to Germany to open Georgia’s relocated and expanded Europe Office in Munich. At the time, Germany was already one of Georgia’s three largest investment partners, with more than 800 German facilities employing over 36,000 people in the state.
Kemp then kept returning to the market himself. In January 2025, he led another economic-development mission to Germany, meeting companies including BASF, Gerresheimer, Carcoustics, KIRCHHOFF Automotive and GEDIA. A month later, he was back in Munich for the Security Conference, where the first Audi pitch took place. By then, German companies involved in state-assisted projects had invested more than $3.9 billion in Georgia since 2010, while roughly 650 German-owned facilities supported about 42,000 jobs.
The Munich office gives Georgia a permanent sales operation in one of its most important investment markets, while Kemp repeatedly steps in as its highest-level salesman. Georgia built the machinery at home; Kemp expanded the sales operation abroad and kept returning to Germany to put that proposition directly before potential investors. Audi is the most visible
result so far.
What Audi actually reveals
Audi’s Georgia decision is therefore difficult to explain with any single policy or politician. Trump changed the economics of producing in America. Kemp spent years making Georgia unusually ready to capture the investment that followed. And Munich gave that strategy a permanent foothold inside one of the world’s most important industrial markets.
That is what makes the Audi deal more revealing than the controversy surrounding its announcement. The factory is not simply a response to tariffs, nor simply another trophy secured with incentives. It is the product of a state that prepared land before it had a tenant, trained workers before production began and sent its governor abroad to sell the package himself.
For Kemp, Audi may ultimately be one of the clearest expressions of his economic legacy. The plant will be built in Peach County. But much of the strategy that brought it there was already in place before Audi came looking.
Sources
Audi AG. “Audi statement on the current situation.” Audi, October 26, 2026. https://www.audi.com/en/press-releases/audi-statement-on-the-current-situation-18422/.
Audi AG. “Audi to establish first U.S. production site in Georgia, investing $4 billion and creating 4,500 jobs.” Audi, October 25, 2026. https://www.audi.com/en/press-releases/audi-to-establish-first-us-production-site-in-georgia-investing-4-billion-and-creating-4500-jobs-18420/.
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution. “How Georgia won Audi plant.” October 2026. https://www.ajc.com/business/2026/10/how-georgia-won-audi-plant/.
Georgia Department of Economic Development. “Governor Kemp Announces Purchase of Middle Georgia Megasite in Peach County.” June 16, 2022. https://georgia.org/press-releases/2022/governor-kemp-announces-purchase-middle-georgia-megasite-peach-county.
Georgia Department of Economic Development. “Representatives from Georgia’s 12 International Offices Convene for 2023 Visit.” 2023. https://georgia.org/blogs/representatives-georgias-12-international-offices-convene-2023-visit.
Georgia Quick Start. “Quick Start Picked No. 1 Workforce Training Program in 2024 Survey.” Technical College System of Georgia, 2024. https://www.georgiaquickstart.org/press-release/.
Middle Georgia Gateway Joint Development Authority. “Middle Georgia Megasite.” https://mggjda.com/megasite.
Office of Governor Brian P. Kemp. “Gov. Kemp: Audi AG Selects Georgia to Invest $4 Billion in First US Manufacturing Facility.” State of Georgia, October 24, 2026. https://gov.georgia.gov/press-releases/2026-10-24/gov-kemp-audi-ag-selects-georgia-invest-4-billion-first-us-manufacturing.
Office of Governor Brian P. Kemp. “Governor, First Lady in Germany for Economic Development Mission.” State of Georgia, January 29, 2020. https://gov.georgia.gov/press-releases/2020-01-29/governor-first-lady-germany-economic-development-mission.
Office of Governor Brian P. Kemp. “Governor Kemp to Reinforce Economic Partnerships in Germany and Poland.” State of Georgia, January 17, 2025. https://gov.georgia.gov/press-releases/2025-01-17/governor-kemp-reinforce-economic-partnerships-germany-and-poland.
Reuters. “Audi CEO’s appearance at Trump rally was ‘deeply embarrassing,’ IG Metall head says.” October 26, 2026. https://www.reuters.com/business/autos-transportation/audi-ceos-appearance-trump-rally-was-deeply-embarrassing-ig-metall-head-says-2026-10-26/.
