Elon Musk Moves to Texas, Takes Jab at Silicon Valley

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Tesla Inc.

Director-General

Elon Mask

said he had moved to Texas, focused on Silicon Valley and became one of the most important leaders who hadn’t left California during the coronavirus pandemic.

He said the move made sense because a new Tesla factory is being built in Texas. He shouted that he thought California had become complacent with its innovators.

Mr. Mask’s companies continue to support large-scale operations in California, and other technology companies are expanding their presence there. His decision to move, however, underlines the growing dissatisfaction, especially among richer technology professionals, the cost of living in the state, the pre-pandemic housing crisis and congested roads.

Life in Texas is a personal advantage for Mr. Mask: The State does not levy State tax on personal income and capital gains. This year, as part of the deal, the car manager received billions of dollars in compensation, making him the second most important person in the world.

In the spring, when Mr. Mask struggled with the coronavirus shelter at the site of orders to close his factory near San Francisco,

California government, Gavin Newsome.

CNBC told CNBC that it was not worried about Alon’s premature departure and that the state was committed to the car manufacturer’s success. We may not be the cheapest place to do business, but we are the best place to do business, said Newsom, a Democrat. Silicon Valley is still home to some of the world’s most prominent companies…

Airbnb Inc.

and food supply company DoorDash Inc. are set for a million-dollar IPO this month, and both are in San Francisco.

Mr Newsome’s office did not immediately respond to the request for comments on Mr Mask’s relocation.

This pandemic has revealed some of the most desirable aspects of working in Silicon Valley: the relative ease of contact and collaboration with like-minded technologists, entrepreneurs and investors who make a hash bar business, or the benefits of free meals, laundry services, massages and fitness activities in luxury business premises.

After Covid 19’s strike, executives and workers left the San Francisco Bay Area in search of cheaper jobs, as remote working conditions became the norm for many. Last week,

Hewlett Packard Enterprise,

whose origins date back to the creation of Silicon Valley, said it’s considering moving its headquarters to Texas. With the departure of many technology leaders and industry observers, the question arises as to whether this geographical region will not lose its position as the country’s most important technology centre.

Palantir Technologies Inc,

It was established in the Bay Area in 2003 and moved its headquarters to Denver this year. CHAIRMAN OF THE BOARD

Alex Karp,

who co-founded the company, combined his departure with what he saw as a vision of Silicon Valley that was inconsistent with American principles and public needs.

At the WSJ board meeting, the head of Tesla said that the pandemic could reduce the impact of the region and warned against mental viruses that hamper dialogue in social networks. Photo: Tobias Schwarz/TSUMA Press

Mr. Mask repeated this sentiment on Tuesday, saying the San Francisco Bay Area has too much influence on the world. He said the power’s changing. I think we’re going to see some decline in Silicon Valley’s influence.

Mask spoke in an interview with Texas editor Matt Murray at the annual board meeting of the Wall Street Journal.

Co-founder of Palantyre

Joe Lonsdale,

venture capitalist, moved to Austin this year. The city has become an attractive alternative to Silicon Valley for technology experts. Last month he wrote in a magazine article that California has become a place where bad policy hinders business and innovation, kills opportunities and makes life in big cities ugly and uncomfortable.

Two other prominent conservative venture capitalists,

Peter Thiel

и

Keith Rabois,

cited what she saw as Silicon Valley Liberal policy as the reason for her move. Mr. Rabois said he was on his way to Miami. Mr. Teal has moved to Los Angeles.

Taxes in California are the subject of many complaints. His personal income tax rate is 13.3% and exceeds $1 million a year, the highest in the country. Capital gains are taxed at a similar rate. Many people at home in the Bay Area expressed their relief at the departure of technicians accused of increasing the cost of living and traffic congestion on the highways.

The new Tesla car plant, the first American plant outside Silicon Valley, is scheduled to open in Austin next year. M. Mask’s rocket company, Space Exploration Technologies Corp. or SpaceX, operates in southern Texas, so M. Mask spends a lot of time in that state. At the end of October he requested the transfer of his personal foundation from California to Austin, according to local documents. Bloomberg’s already talked about it.

Mask compared California to a sports team with a long winning streak and said that they really tend to be a little complacent, a little runner-up, and then they don’t win the championship anymore. California, he says, has been winning for a long time. And I think they take it for granted.

Mr. Mask spent most of his life in California and chose Fremont, southeast of San Francisco, for Tesla’s first American factory. He owns houses in Southern California and the Gulf.

Many people hesitate to announce the end of Silicon Valley. Previous predictions that the rich technical elite would flee en masse to countries with low taxes did not come true. Major employers as parents of Google

Alphabet Inc.

и

Facebook Inc.

recently, even during the pandemic, more office space to rent in the region

And the championship in the Bay Area as the home of the starters continues. According to PitchBook, during the pandemic – from April to early December – 26.6% of all US start-ups receiving venture capital funding were in the region. This figure is only slightly below the average of 27.4% since the beginning of 2017.

Mask has widely criticised government regulation as discouraging the creation of start-ups and as conducive to monopolies or duopolies. He asked the government simply to avoid innovators.

The environmental regulations provide fuel for his company in electric cars. Tesla has benefited from the government’s carbon credit programmes that have helped it achieve its final results. To date, the company has earned $1.18 billion by selling carbon credits to other automakers.

Mr. Mask has been critical of regulators in the past. He threatened to postpone Tesla’s operations out of California when he fought with local authorities in May after local protection orders forced him to close his isolated car plant in the United States to slow the spread of the coronavirus. He criticised local officials at the time and accused them of violating people’s freedom by imposing restrictions on them.

The director then sued the district of the Tesla factory in Alameda and asked the local authorities to reopen the factory and dared to stop it. In the end, the district blessed the opening of the factory and did not ask for an arrest.

Last month Mr. Musk announced that he tested positive on the Covid-19 test after he had repeatedly reduced his disease risk. Public health researchers have criticised it as a ruthless spread of false information about the coronavirus.

Mr. Musk’s criticism of Silicon Valley comes despite a successful year for Tesla. On Tuesday, the company said it would raise up to $5 billion by selling new shares. This is the second time this year that it has raised this amount to finance its expansion plans. Mask explained that Tesla plans to produce about 20 million cars a year in a few years, compared to 500,000 in 2020. These funds will settle the debt, Musk said, and give the company a bigger military vault.

Musk said that Tesla and SpaceX continue to conduct important operations in California.

-Eliot Brown contributed to this article.

Write to Heather Somerville at [email protected].

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