Palo Alto selected as Tesla's new division HQ
Engineering base will be at H-P site near automaker's other existing offices
PALO ALTO >> Tesla has decided to base its engineering headquarters in Palo Alto at a former HewlettPackard site, the company's top boss Elon Musk announced on Feb. 22.
Musk made the announcement in Palo Alto during an unusual joint appearance with Gov. Gavin Newsom. The pair have sparred in the past over California's business climate.
“We're excited to announce that Tesla's global engineering headquarters will be right here in the former headquarters of Hewlett-Packard,” Musk said. “This is a poetic transition from the company that founded Silicon Valley to Tesla.”
The decision to place the engineering headquarters in Palo Alto also represents a win for California and its political establishment, which were jolted in 2021 when Tesla decided to decamp its headquarters from the Golden State and move the company's corporate offices to Texas.
The company has never ceased operations in California, however. Tesla already has a presence in the vicinity of the old HewlettPackard complex at 1501 Page Mill Road. Both the existing Tesla offices in Palo Alto and the onetime H-P headquarters site are near the corner of Hanover Street and Page Mill
Road in Stanford Industrial Park.
On Feb. 22, soon after the joint announcement, Tesla tweeted a post that exhorted tech talent to join the Tesla team in the Bay Area.
“Come join our Engineering team in California!” Tesla tweeted just before 1 p.m., Feb. 22.
At least 700 openings in Palo Alto were posted at a link where Tesla was directing people to apply for engineering jobs in California, a move that comes as many tech companies are laying off workers.
In the past, Musk said he wanted Tesla's headquarters to be closer to one of the electric vehicle maker's factories as well as a SpaceX complex, both in Texas. Musk also criticized California's business climate as sour.
“If a team is winning for too long, they tend to get complacent,” Musk said in December 2020. “California has been winning for a long time, and I think they're taking it for granted.”
Yet even right after Tesla announced the plan to shift its headquarters to Texas, the company signed a lease for 325,000 square feet at the 1501 Page Mill Road site. Now it appears that the company is ramping up that effort.
Musk also took the time to praise the production at the Tesla electric vehicle factory in Fremont.
“Our Fremont manufacturing plant is the highest output automotive plant in North America,” Musk said. “It will probably do 600,000 or more cars this year if things go well.”
The governor previously estimated during a panel presentation in 2022 that Tesla had received over the years incentives totaling around $1 billion. The governor's office did not respond to questions about whether the state offered further incentives to establish Palo Alto as the engineering headquarters for the green energy titan.
Newsom said this time around, he hopes that locating the engineering headquarters in Palo Alto would produce even more dramatic dividends in the future.
“Let's see this as the beginning of something even more extraordinary on the journey to dominate in this space and to change the way we produce and consume energy in this state, the nation, and the world,” Newsom said.
Musk embraced that hope during the joint appearance.
“We are looking forward to an exciting partnership in California to do exactly that and transition the world to sustainable energy as quickly as possible,” Musk said.
For Newsom, Tesla's decision also represents a win at a time when his second term in the governor's office has stoked speculation about his possible future plans regarding national politics.
The governor said he's well aware that California can't be complacent, even if its economy would be one of the world's largest.
“I recognize the world we invented is now competing against us,” the governor said. “You can't rest on your laurels. You've got to step up your game. You have to invest in your growth engine.”