The electric vehicle company is expanding its presence in the Golden State with a big move.
The old Hewlett Packard (HPQ) – Get a free reportThe Palo Alto, California, campus is now in the hands of Tesla (TSLA) – Get a free reportCEO Elon Musk.
Tesla’s global engineering headquarters will occupy the space, he announced at a press conference with California Gov. Gavin Newsom and Musk on February 22.
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“I couldn’t be more proud of California’s commitment to supporting Tesla over the past several decades,” Newsom said, according to ABC7 News in San Francisco. “It’s provable in terms of policy, in terms of direction, more broadly.”
Musk discussed the importance of California to the electric vehicle company, discussing production at its Fremont, California manufacturing plant.
“So we’ll probably make 600,000 or more cars this year, if all goes well,” Musk said, according to ABC7. “To his point, California is a great manufacturer, as well as a place of engineering and innovation.”
The expansion involves hiring R&D and artificial intelligence engineers with the interest of producing Tesla’s self-driving and robotics technology.
Image source: Tesla
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“This was the original HP headquarters, so I think it’s a poetic transition from the Silicon Valley founders to Tesla and we’re very excited to make this our global engineering headquarters,” Musk said. CNBC. “And we are a California-Texas company.”
Musk expanded on his sentiments about doing business in California.
“I think California should be careful about excessive taxes and regulations that go too far.” he said. “Factually, Tesla has only increased its presence in California. Both in terms of manufacturing, engineering and people. Every year we have increased our workforce in California without exception.”
Musk has spoken in the past about what he sees as California’s tendency to overregulate and overtax.
“I’m not anti-California,” he said. CNBC. “You have to strike a balance and say there are a lot of good things about California and there are some challenges. California could make manufacturing easier, but we encourage lawmakers to consider their actions for the long term.”
