The San Mateo-based drone maker is committing $3.5 billion over the next five years to scale up U.S. manufacturing, including a significantly larger factory right here on the Peninsula. That's not a typo. Billions — with a B — poured into building things in one of the most expensive labor and real estate markets in the country.

Let's be real: this raises eyebrows. As one local put it, "I'm honestly surprised. Other drone companies have their engineering in the Bay Area but manufacturing in low-cost-of-living areas like Georgia or Ohio. Wonder what the benefit of doing manufacturing in the Bay Area is for them."

It's a fair question. And the answer probably comes down to a few things: proximity to engineering talent, tighter integration between R&D and production, and — let's not ignore this — the defense and government contracts that increasingly demand domestically produced, secure supply chains. Skydio has carved out a niche as the American alternative to Chinese-made drones, and keeping the whole operation stateside, close to the brains, has strategic value that a cheap warehouse in rural Ohio can't replicate.

From a fiscal perspective, this is the kind of private-sector investment we should be celebrating. No massive taxpayer-funded incentive package. No sweetheart TIF deal bleeding municipal coffers. Just a company betting its own capital that building here makes business sense.

That said, the Bay Area's regulatory and permitting environment has a well-documented habit of strangling exactly this kind of ambition. If San Mateo County wants to keep a $3.5 billion manufacturing commitment from becoming a cautionary tale about bureaucratic friction, the smartest thing local officials can do is stay out of the way. Fast-track permits. Cut red tape. Let the factory get built.

Manufacturing jobs in the Bay Area have been vanishing for decades. If Skydio can prove the model works here — high-tech, high-security production at scale — it could signal something bigger than one company's expansion. It could signal that building things in the Bay Area isn't dead yet.

Don't screw this up, San Mateo.