IIRC, Musk was proud to boast of the decision to leave California for how great Texas is. I wonder (don't wonder) if he'll boast about how great California is over Texas now that he's moving back. There must be a reason. Also, wonder what shareholders and board members think of such a costly move-and-undo.
This is just the engineering headquarters. Corporate HQ is still Texas, and design engineering never moved out of the bay. Nothing too exciting to be read out of this announcement.
You could read this story 2 ways:
1. The whole "everyone is leaving CA for TX" idea is overblown.
2. Musk is more erratic and not as intelligent as he wants everyone to think he is.
I can think of a few reasons they might have difficulty convincing new hires to move to Texas.
Who wants to help Musk develop more rolling MAGA hats?
Tesla has got to get rid of him somehow.
People don’t want to live in the best city in the world, Austin, TX???
I can’t tell if this is sarcasm. Austin has a lot going for it. And a lot not.
Austin is a nice place. But retrograde ideas about women's bodily autonomy make Texas a hard choice for many university grads, especially women, who are close to 60% of grads now.