Tesla joins corporate, tech's California to Texas exodus, with Musk citing mandates, housing costs

Tesla owner Elon Musk has officially announced he's the headquarters for his electric vehicle company from California to Texas, citing COVID-19 lockdown orders and high housing prices among his top reasons for the relocation.

The billionaire entrepreneur had vowed for roughly a year to make the move. In December, Musk said he personally moved to Texas to be near the new Telsa factory that is manufacturing Telsa's Cybertruck.

His company, SpaceX, launches rockets from Texas.

Musk made the announcement about the move Thursday at the company’s annual shareholder meeting, according to The New York Times. 

The new headquarters will be in Austin. However, Musk still plans to keep and expand the factory in Fremont, Calif., where production was suspended during the high of the pandemic because of local mandates.  

He also said the high housing costs has resulted in too-long commutes for some employees and suggested the California plant had limited growth ability.

"There’s a limit to how big you can scale in the Bay Area," he said, also according to The Times.

In December, tech giants Oracle and Hewlett Packard Enterprise each announced moving their respective headquarters to Texas from California's Silicon Valley.