In a joint press conference with Californian Governor Gavin Newson, Tesla CEO Elon Musk has announced that the EV company will move its engineering headquarters back to California.
The move comes as somewhat of a surprise. In late 2021 Tesla had announced that it would move the company headquarters to Tesla’s gigantic new factory in Austin Texas after Musk become frustrated with California’s forced closure of Tesla’s Fremont factory during the pandemic in 2020.
Moving the heart of the company to Texas was a monumental shift as Tesla had emerged and grown out of the Silicon Valley tech culture since its inception in 2003.
Tesla’s HQ will still be in Austin Texas but the new global engineering HQ will be right in the heart of Silicon Valley. Tesla’s new engineering HQ will be the former Palo Alto office of computer giant HP. Formally Hewlett-Packard, HP is widely considered the pioneering startup of Silicon Valley.
Back to where it began
During the announcement Musk said: “I think it’s a poetic transition from the company that founded Silicon Valley to Tesla and we’re very excited to make this our global engineering headquarters in California.”
California Engineering HQ—Remarks by Gov. Newsom/Elon Musk https://t.co/DMoY7TYK5O
— Tesla (@Tesla) February 22, 2023
Californian Governor Gavin Newsom commented on Tesla’s meteoric rise over the last 2 decades saying “If you want to be big, be big in big things.”
He went on to say that Tesla had “the opportunity to transform the automobile industry, to lead the world not just this nation”.
The Governor also pointed out that Tesla had been on an extraordinary journey over the last 20 years to “now be the dominant manufacturer in the dominant manufacturing state” and that California is “now the fourth largest economy in the world. Eat your heart out Germany”.
Young engineers want to work for Tesla
While Tesla is becoming a manufacturing juggernaut, it is also one of the world’s leading AI companies so locating the new engineering HQ in the heart of the Silicon Vally’s tech ecosystem a very logical choice.
Tesla is using the news of the new engineering HQ as a recruitment drive.
Come join our Engineering team in California! → https://t.co/SYHtzDAj4S https://t.co/tlcECcMtzZ
— Tesla (@Tesla) February 22, 2023
A 2021 survey of over 50,000 students at 310 universities across the US found that Tesla was the second most attractive company to work for for engineering students with Space X as the number 1 most desirable company.
California which has some of the strongest climate policies and boasts the fastest EV uptake in the US has always been the cultural home for the company. California is by far Tesla’s biggest market in the US and therefore the world. With the new engineering HQ back in Silicon Vally the company will no doubt have access to even more engineering talent.
Daniel Bleakley is a clean technology researcher and advocate with a background in engineering and business. He has a strong interest in electric vehicles, renewable energy, manufacturing and public policy.