Tesla is set to announce a move to a new ‘California Engineering Headquarters’ in about an hour with both CEO Elon Musk and Governor Gavin Newsome participating in the announcement.
California has been critical to Tesla’s success over the last 20 years. The state has helped Tesla in its time of need, and its strong climate initiatives and EV incentives have made it the biggest market for electric vehicles in the US and, therefore, Tesla’s biggest market.
However, the love story between Tesla and California ended somewhat abruptly in 2020. Early measures to curb the spread of COVID-19 resulted in Tesla closing its Fremont factory, which angered CEO Elon Musk to the point of threatening to move Tesla from California.
By 2021, Tesla delivered on the threat and moved its headquarters to Texas.
The automaker always maintained that it is still heavily investing in California and even had to walk back Musk’s threat to move the Fremont factory out of the state.
The company maintained its old headquarters in Palo Alto, which became a hub for some engineering and administrative teams.
There have been rumors that Tesla has been taking over some buildings previously occupied by HP closer to the center of Palo Alto in recent months – with rumors that it would move its California offices there.
Tesla had already started taking buildings at the old HP headquarters back in 2021.
Now Tesla has announced today that it will confirm a new “California Enigneering HQ” today:
The announcement is coming in the next hour and we will update this post with all the details. Stay tuned.
Update: it’s going to be broadcasted live on Twitter (of course).
They have confirmed that the new engineering headquarters will be located at 1501 Page Mill Road. Palo Alto, CA 94304.
The announcement is as simple as making the former HP HQ in Palo Alto Tesla’s new engineering headquarters. The company didn’t confirm how many employees will work there, but it looks like the facility can fit thousands of employees.
Electrek’s take:
Good to see Elon Musk and CA governor Gavin Newsome still have a working relationship though that 6-minute interaction seemed rather uncomfortable, particularly after all of the disparaging things Elon has said about California’s government and Democratic politicians.
It also underscores that though Tesla was able to move a lot of mostly manufacturing jobs and HQ to Texas, the braintrust of Silicon Valley is still key to Tesla’s survival and growth.