After a 2021 temper tantrum by CEO Elon Musk, Tesla dramatically moved its headquarters to Texas. There were also ongoing battles with the state of California over pandemic protections for Tesla's workers. Oh, and California also has taxes that Tesla's CEO famously does not want to pay, and California is more employee-friendly than Texas. So Tesla moved.
Fast forward to 2023 and it seems it was too hard to hire EV engineers in Texas, or perhaps Musk overextended himself and needs to be closer to Twitter. The company gave no solid reason as Musk and California Governor Gavin Newsom announced the carmaker's triumphant, and probably expensive, return to the Golden State.
Gov. Newsom was gracious in welcoming Tesla back.
Tesla moved its headquarters out of California in late 2021 to set up shop in Austin. At the time of the move, Musk was in an ongoing battle with Alameda County public health officials over his desire to reopen the Fremont manufacturing plant in the middle of the coronavirus pandemic.
Daniel Ives, an analyst for multibillion-dollar investment firm Wedbush, said at the time that he believed Tesla's move would be massively beneficial for the company due to tax breaks offered by Texas and the cheaper cost of labor.
Musk moved his residence from California to Texas, where there is no state personal income tax.
Musk did not specifically address the reasoning for returning Tesla's headquarters to Silicon Valley. It's unclear if the state offered any incentives for the company to return, or if Musk simply wanted to be closer to the Twitter headquarters, which is located in San Francisco.
