Elon Musk, the CEO of Tesla, and Gavin Newsom, the Democrat Governor of California, made an appearance together this past Wednesday evening in order for the electric automaker to unveil a brand new hub for its technology team located in Silicon Valley.
Tesla is slated to move its previous headquarters of personal computing company HP over into its global headquarters for engineering operations. The billionaire entrepreneur and prominent Democratic politician chose to co-host a press conference at the new location this past Wednesday evening.
“The future happens in California first. We’re changing the world through our historic investments, our conveyor belt for talent, and partnerships with companies like Tesla,” explained Newsom in a release. “The state continues to be the world’s innovation hub, charging the electric vehicle revolution, and dominating the industry in every category, all while keeping the same goal in mind: ensuring a cleaner, greener, and healthier place to live for future generations.”
Musk, who was quite cordial with Newsom throughout the press event held on Wednesday, previously elected to shift the primary headquarters of Tesla ot the state of Texas in the wake of extreme antagonism from California state officials. The primary headquarters for the company is expected to remain in Austin.
As the second-richest man in the world, Musk stated that he was becoming increasingly frustrated due to the extreme government lockdowns which stopped the reopening of his companies during the spring of 2020, calling the phenomenon “the final straw.” Even as a few Democratic legislators have been shocked at his recent purchase of Twitter and his plan to alter the content moderation policies for the platform, this appearance alongside Newsom could be a flag marking a détente in relations with the American Left.
“This was HP’s original headquarters, and so I think it’s a poetic transition from the founders of Silicon Valley to Tesla and we’re very excited to make this our global engineering headquarters,” stated Musk as part of an interview held with CNBC. “And we’re a California-Texas company.”
Musk has also thought about altering Twitter, which currently has its headquarters in San Francisco, into a dual-headquartered company with a set of offices situated in both Texas and California, a plan which would represent the social media platform’s choice to ensure free expression for everyone without regard to where they sit along the political aisle. SpaceX, a company owned by Musk which researches and launches reusable rockets, has already utilized major launch facilities in Texas, while brain machine startup Neuralink and tunnel construction venture The Boring Company have operations in Austin.