Tesla Inc.
TSLA 1.39%
is moving its headquarters to Austin, Texas, cementing
Elon Musk’s
commitment to the Lone Star State and adding to a handful of prominent Silicon Valley companies that have relocated there.
Chief Executive Elon Musk announced the move from Tesla’s Austin-area factory, which the company began building last year and where it held its annual shareholder meeting Thursday. He added that Tesla plans to expand its activities in California but that the company’s ability to scale up in the Bay Area is limited.
“You go to our Fremont factory, it is jammed,” he said. “We’re like Spam in a can.”
Mr. Musk said last year that he had moved to Texas, where his rocket company, Space Exploration Technologies Corp., or SpaceX, has major operations. He previously likened California to a sports team that had grown complacent after a winning streak. Tesla is following in the footsteps of companies including
Hewlett Packard Enterprise Co.
—a descendant of what Bill Hewlett and Dave Packard started in a Palo Alto, Calif., garage—and
Oracle Corp.
, which moved their corporate headquarters to Texas earlier in the Covid-19 pandemic.
While Tesla overcame snarled global supply chains to deliver a record number of vehicles in the third quarter, Mr. Musk indicated that parts shortages have limited the company’s ability to deliver on new, long-promised models.
“This year has been just a constant struggle with parts supply,” he said.
Tesla is likely to begin producing its Cybertruck pickup late next year, with higher-volume output coming in 2023, Mr. Musk said. In January, he had been optimistic that the company would be able to begin delivering a few of the pickup trucks to customers by the end of 2021.
He said he hoped the company would be producing its long-delayed semitrailer truck and a revamped version of its Roadster sports car in 2023.
“The semi in particular needs a lot of cells,” he said. “It needs a lot of cells, a lot of chips. We’ve got to have enough. Otherwise it’s pointless.”
Also on Thursday, a preliminary vote tally indicated that Tesla directors
James Murdoch
and Mr. Musk’s brother, Kimbal Musk, would be re-elected to the company’s board, said the investor-relations chief, Martin Viecha.
The proxy advisory firm Institutional Shareholder Services had urged investors to vote against their re-election over concerns including high executive and director compensation. The directors have served on the board since 2017 and 2004, respectively. The Murdoch family is a major shareholder in News Corp, the parent company of The Wall Street Journal.
Write to Rebecca Elliott at [email protected]
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