Well, you can't really say this is all that surprising; probably the only one who didn't see it coming was Gov. Gavin Newsom:
Tesla Inc Chief Executive Elon Musk said on Thursday the electric carmaker plans to move its headquarters from Silicon Valley's Palo Alto, California to Austin, Texas, where it is building a massive car and battery manufacturing complex.
Tesla joins Oracle, HP and Toyota Motor in moving U.S. headquarters to Texas from California, which has relatively high taxes and living costs. While Silicon Valley also is a hive of development of new ideas and companies, Texas is known for cheaper labor and less stringent regulation.
"I'm excited to announce that we're moving our headquarters to Austin, Texas," Musk told the company's annual meeting, held in the Texas car factory.
A business leaving California?! This is a twist worthy of a Hitchcock masterpiece.
Hold on, though: Elon wants everyone to know that he's not totally ending things in California:
"This is not a matter of, sort of, Tesla leaving California," he said, saying it plans to increase output from its main California factory and Nevada factory by 50%.
Uh huh. This is like getting dumped by the prom queen but then she says, "I still like you as a friend." Small comfort!
Anyway, let's all join together and welcome Tesla to its sweet new digs in Texas!
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