Tesla boss Elon Musk and California Governor Gavin Newsom announced in a live-streamed event that the American EV giant would return to the Silicon Valley city with a new global engineering headquarters.
Notably, the move occurred after over a year of Tesla’s relocation of its corporate HQ from Palo Alto to Austin, Texas.
Announcement
The live stream was held at Hewlett Packard’s former HQ in Palo Alto, where Tesla plans to build its engineering unit in the coming days.
Neither CEO Musk nor Governor Newsom disclosed the incentive package that the automaker may receive from the state or the exact number of job prospects it may generate.
As of February 23, Tesla has posted numerous open job positions in Palo Alto related to the following operations: engineering and information technology, supply chain, Autopilot and robotics, vehicle software, charging, operations and business support, and more.
Nonetheless, we expect more relevant details about the project at the highly awaited Tesla Investor Day event on March 1.
Why California?
CEO Musk stated that having its engineering HQ in a former Hewlett Packard building in California is “a poetic transition from the company that founded Silicon Valley to Tesla.”
Apart from that, it is no doubt that the tech industry continues to rely heavily on the Golden State as a talent hub.
In retrospect, CEO Musk has slammed California for “overregulation, overlitigation, and over-taxation.” He even relocated his residence from Los Angeles to take advantage of Austin, Texas’ lack of a state income tax. Furthermore, he also moved Tesla’s HQ to Austin in October 2021 with the development of its new Gigafactory in the state.
Finally, this recent announcement marks progress between Tesla and California’s relationship, showing that the EV giant will not entirely abandon the Golden State.
