Elon Musk to move Tesla HQ from Silicon Valley to Texas
Elon Musk has announced that Tesla is moving its headquarters from California’s Silicon Valley to Austin, Texas after 18 years in the Golden State.
The move comes after Musk butted heads with Californian politicians earlier this year when he branded lockdown restrictions “fascist” after his factories were forced to close.
While Silicon Valley is considered the world’s tech and innovation centre Texas has looser labour laws and regulation as well as lower living costs.
“I’m excited to announce that we’re moving our headquarters to Austin, Texas,” Musk told the company’s annual meeting, held in the company’s Texas factory.
“We will be continuing to expand our activities in California” Musk added. “This is not a matter of, sort of, Tesla leaving California,” he said, announcing that the electronic vehicle manufacturer plans to increase output from its California factory by 50 per cent.
Musk put the move down to size issues at the “jammed” California based HQ and said he hopes to create an “ecological paradise” in Austin.
“When we first fit in there we were like a kid in his parents shoes,” explained Musk. “Now we’re like spam in a can here.”
With the move Tesla is making good on a threat to leave California made by Musk in May 2020. During a public spat with politicians on Twitter he wrote “Tesla will now move its HQ and future programs to Texas/Nevada immediately.”
Billionaire Musk moved to Texas from California in December to focus on the SpaceX rocket company, which has a launch site in South Texas.
Musk follows the likes of Oracle, HP and Toyota Moto who have also moved operations to Texas from California.
Read more: Tesla worker awarded £100m after facing ‘daily racist epithets’ at car giant’s factory