Elon Musk announces Tesla is moving its headquarters to Austin

The CEO says the company is still expanding production in California

Tesla CEO Elon Musk announced Thursday that the company's headquarters will be moving from Fremont, California, to Austin, Texas.

"I'm excited to announce that we're moving our headquarters to Austin, Texas," Musk said during the electric vehicle maker's 2021 annual stockholders meeting from Tesla's Gigafactory in Austin, drawing wild applause from the crowd present. 

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FILE PHOTO: Tesla Inc CEO Elon Musk walks next to a screen showing an image of Tesla Model 3 car during an opening ceremony for Tesla China-made Model Y program in Shanghai, China January 7, 2020. REUTERS/Aly Song/File Photo/File Photo (REUTERS/Aly Song/File Photo/File Photo / Reuters Photos)

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"To be clear here, we will be continuing to expand our activities in California," he explained. "This is not a matter of Tesla leaving California. Our intention is to actually increase output from Fremont and from Giga[factory] Nevada by 50%."

"If you go to our Fremont factory, it is jammed," Musk said, suggesting Tesla had outgrown the facility and likening it to "Spam in a can." But he said there were other reasons for moving the company’s home base out of California. 

Tesla Fremont

Tesla plant in Fremont, Calif. (AP Photo/Ben Margot) (AP Newsroom)

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"It’s tough for people to afford houses and a lot of people have to come in from far away," Musk said of the current Tesla headquarters. He added, "We’ve taken it as far as possible but…there’s a limit to how big you can scale it in the Bay Area."

Musk went on to say, "Here in Austin, our factory’s like five minutes from the airport, 15 minutes from downtown, and we’re going to create an ecological paradise here because we’re right on the Colorado River. It’s gonna be great."

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Austin, Texas (iStock)

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"To emphasize again," Musk reiterated, Tesla will "continue to expand in California, significantly – but even more so here in Texas."