Founder and CEO of Tesla, Elon Musk, announced he would be moving his company headquarters out of Silicon Valley to Austin, Texas.
Musk announced in March he personally would be leaving California and taking his companies — Tesla, SpaceX, and the Boring Company — to Texas after fighting with the state’s policies on COVID-19 restrictions and taxes, criticizing “politicians and unelected bureaucrats” who have abused their powers during the pandemic. In defiance of California’s stay-at-home orders at the beginning of the pandemic, Musk reopened his auto manufacturing plant in Alameda County.
County health officials from the state allowed Musk to reopen his manufacturing plant so long as social distancing guidelines were enforced and followed, telling him he could remain open if he followed “minimum business operations.”
“I’m excited to announce we are moving our headquarters to Austin, Texas,” Musk confirmed during Tesla’s annual meeting with the stockholders.
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“Just to be clear, though, we will be continuing to expand our activities in California,” Musk reassured, adding the company seeks to increase their output from their Fremont location by 50%.
Tesla announced in July 2020 the company had selected Austin, Texas, to be the future site of its new factory, investing nearly $1.1 billion. The factory would employ over 5,000 workers and receive more than $60 million in tax breaks from county and local school districts, according to Fox23.
States such as Texas and Florida combined saw a 35% increase of tech workers coming to their states within the past year, rather than to states such as California, New York, or Washington state, according to data from Axios.
California saw an almost 35% decrease in tech workers leaving the state last year, while both New York and Washington saw a decrease between 17% and 18%, according to the data.
The announcement from Musk comes after he was thrown into the middle of the heated abortion debate once again at the forefront, thanks to Texas passing an abortion law banning abortions as early as six weeks.
Republican Texas Gov. Greg Abbott claimed during an interview that Musk “consistently” tells him he “likes the social policies in the state of Texas.” Musk later clarified he doesn’t believe in the government imposing “its will upon the people” and prefers not to be involved with politics.
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Tesla’s move to Texas follows several other tech companies, including Oracle Corporation, which made the move last December.
