Space X and Tesla founder Elon Musk in New York City, August 2021. (Photo: Naresh111 / Shutterstock.com)
Tesla Officially Moves Headquarters From Palo Alto to Austin, Texas
Tesla has not said how many employees will be relocating to Austin
By Evan Symon, December 2, 2021 6:55 am
Electric vehicle and energy company Tesla officially moved completely from Palo Alto to Austin, Texas on Wednesday, becoming the latest Californian company to move out of the state in the last few years.
The move to Austin had been in the works since October when the it was first announced.
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Tesla has been following the lead of companies such as Oracle and HP Enterprise by moving their headquarters out of the state, but largely leaving offices and jobs in California intact to take advantage of lower taxes and a better business climate elsewhere. While the new Tesla headquarters will be in Austin, along with Elon Musk who moved out of California last year, Tesla has remained committed to California in many other regards, such as keeping offices and a car factory in Fremont and a new factory being built in Lathrop.
However, according to a filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) on Wednesday, the move was made official, with Tesla headquarters now being located on Harold Green Road in Austin. The filings note that out of 71,000 worldwide employees, 10,000 worked at the headquarters in Palo Alto. Tesla has not said how many will be relocating to Austin, but prior comments by Musk noting housing and commuting issues hint that it will be substantial, with some analysts looking at as much as 50%.
“It’s tough for people to afford houses, and people have to come in from far away,” Musk said in October. “There’s a limit to how big you can scale in the Bay Area. We’re taking it as far as possible, but there’s a limit how big you can scale it in the Bay Area. Just to be clear, though, we will be continuing to expand our activities in California. This is not a matter of leaving California. Our intention is to increase output from Fremont and Giga Nevada by 50%. If you go to our Fremont factory it’s jammed.”
Experts note that Texas’ favorable business climate and lower taxes have been the major pull, with housing, commuting, and other issues only being largely secondary to overall costs.
“Tesla’s move that was made official today was about money, pure and simple,” San Francisco-based tech lawyer David Singth explained to the Globe on Wednesday. “And you can’t really blame them. Taxes are high, a lot of places in the Bay Area are in high demand still, and businesses feel a lot more squeezed out here.”
“Many aren’t moving or are keeping a large presence out here. California is still California after all, and there’s a lot of people here that hate Texas itself, the heat, and other factors. Some economic too, like easier port access for products and a lot of supporting infrastructure that places like Texas and Nevada just don’t have.
“But it’s hard to compete against the Texas Economic Development Act, which is giving a ton of tax breaks to companies moving there. It will hit a head at some point, just like it did to California in recent years, where taxes will go up, but right now companies are taking advantage, and that means big companies like Tesla are going out. If anything, this is another red flag for California to start changing things for businesses here.”
Other Silicon Valley Businesses are currently considering moves outside of California.
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Good riddance! Musk is an arrogant s.o.b. who refuses to abide by CA’s rules for businesses.
Do you mean those rules that prevent making a profit and those that run everyone out of business? Think of all the jobs Musk has saved that would have been destroyed by the psychopath in Cabo.
He is a capitalist and CAPITALISM IS GOOD! I wish him well and others will follow him.
Typical reaction from a Progressive wacko. Now get off your Dad’s computer, kid, and leave this thread to the adults. You have homework to do.
“CA’s rules for business”? As if you have even the most elementary clue? Oh, right, the “rules” about having to have so many LBGTQIA+s, coloreds, illegal aliens, social justice advisors, martians, chihuahuas, kids of politicians, etc. RUNNING the companies as part of the Board? THOSE rules? Well, yeah, I see your point, I can understand how that might pull the pacifiers out of your mouth and azz. Grow up, you little punk…and finish high school.
That’s right. Good riddance! Tesla was getting in the way of the Democratic Party turning the state into a Communist Third World state. We don’t want smart, hard working people here. We want lazy, dependent people who vote for the state party, Democrat, who have the brain power of a flee with all of the legalized marijuana we are giving them.
Musk refuses to be anyone’s lapdog which is why Democrats like Lorena Gonzales despise him:
“…his comments on the Biden administration’s Build Back Better agenda and $1T infrastructure spending bill.
Quote: “Honestly, it might be better if the bill doesn’t pass. We’ve spent so much money, the federal budget deficit is insane. I would say… can the whole bill. Don’t pass it, that’s my recommendation. There’s no need for support [of a charging network]. Do we need support for gas stations? We don’t. So there’s no need for this. I would delete it. Delete. I am literally saying get rid of all subsidies [even for research and development].”
…Some of the criticism could also stem from the fact that the bill would give consumers a tax credit of as much as $12,500 if they buy an EV assembled by union workers using American-made batteries.”