California Governor Gavin Newsom and Tesla CEO Elon Musk visited the company’s new technical headquarters on Wednesday.
The discussion at Tesla’s engineering office in Palo Alto, California, according to sources close to the governor, concentrated on the company’s efforts to expand and create jobs in the state.
Engineers skilled in artificial intelligence and research and development will be the main focus of the expansion. Hewlett-lease Packard’s on the office building will be taken up by Tesla. The strategies will hasten attempts to develop robot and autonomous vehicle technologies.
We’re extremely happy to make this our global engineering headquarters, Musk told CNBC. “This was HP’s initial headquarters, so I believe it’s a beautiful transition from the founders of Silicon Valley to Tesla,” he said. And we’re a Texas-California firm, she added.
After repeated fruitless attempts to schedule meetings between the most well-known politician in the state and the most outspoken billionaire, Tesla finally lined up the meeting.
Musk claimed that the new building serves as “essentially a headquarters of Tesla” and that the business has “sort of two headquarters.” Austin, Texas serves as the home of Tesla’s primary offices.
It happens at a time when Tesla is under state regulatory investigation. The California Department of Motor Vehicles has officially charged Tesla with using misleading marketing and promotion techniques in relation to its driver assistance features, dubbed Full Self-Diving and Autopilot, respectively. Also, the state’s civil rights department has filed a lawsuit against Tesla, alleging that the company’s car assembly facility and other sites in California have long harboured racist harassment and discrimination against Black employees.
District attorneys in various California counties are “doing an investigation into Tesla’s waste segregation processes” for violations of hazardous waste-related code, according to Tesla’s most recent annual financial statement with the SEC.
A request for comment from Tesla was not immediately complied with.
Tesla’s success has been largely attributed to California and its aggressive environment policies. California has sold approximately 1.4 million zero-emission vehicles (ZEVs) and is home to 55 ZEV-related manufacturing businesses, making it the nation’s market leader.
Yet, when it comes to his business, Musk’s opinions on California have not been all that favourable.
Musk and state officials fought over the reopening of the Tesla plant in Fremont, California, when the pandemic broke out in March 2020. While COVID was hitting businesses all throughout the nation at the time, Musk was urging his employees to report to work. Musk called the health-related COVID limits in California “fascist.”
Musk relocated Tesla’s corporate headquarters to Austin, Texas, in 2021 after making repeated threats to quit the region. Two factories are owned and run by the corporation in Fremont and Lathrop.
Musk discussed his current views on California in an interview with CNBC.
He remarked, “I believe California should be wary of excessive taxes and regulations. Objectively speaking, Tesla has only expanded its presence in California. both in terms of engineering, manufacturing, and staff. We have increased our staff in California every year without fail.
Since then, Musk has made it obvious what side of the political aisle he is on, branding California as a one-party state with excessive regulations and high taxes. Notwithstanding these remarks, Governor Newsom has lauded Musk and referred to him as “one of the greatest inventors of our time” in numerous talks with CNBC.
Tesla is still a significant employer in the state and is growing its operations, according to Musk. For instance, Tesla bragged about a new Megapack facility in Lathrop, California, in the fourth quarter of 2022.
He told CNBC, “I’m not anti-California. “One must strike a balance and acknowledge that California has both many positive aspects and some difficulties. California might facilitate manufacturing, but we urge lawmakers to think long-term before acting.
In 2022, Tesla claimed to have 47,000 workers in California, according to a blog post from January 2023. The corporation and its subsidiaries employed 127,855 people globally as of December 31, 2022. According to the business, its wages generated $16.6 billion in economic activity.
