Billionaire CEO Elon Musk said Tuesday of his company Tesla Inc. TSLA He started manufacturing in California, even though it was more expensive because he lived there.
What happened: Tesla acquired the Fremont factory from Toyota Motor Corporation in 2010. The plant was previously owned by NUMMI, a joint venture between General Motors and Toyota, which closed in 2009 following GM’s bankruptcy.
“Tesla took over an abandoned building that had been stripped of everything useful and is now the highest producing car factory in the Americas. That’s just because I live in California.” Musk said on social media platform X.
Similarly, Musk’s rocket manufacturing company, SpaceX, took over an abandoned aerospace building in Los Angeles County and began building rockets there because the company’s CEO lived there, Musk said. said.
“These were done in spite of, not because of, the California government. Competitors moved out of state because it was much cheaper to manufacture in other states,” Musk said. He mentioned United Launch Alliance, a joint venture between rival launch providers Boeing Co. and Lockheed Martin Co., which builds rockets in Alabama.
Why it matters: Musk has long been a critic of California.
Citing conflicts with state policy, he moved Tesla’s headquarters from California to Austin several years ago, and later moved the company’s incorporated state to Texas.
In July, the billionaire announced he would move the headquarters of his rocket manufacturing company SpaceX from Hawthorne, California, to Starbase, Texas. He himself moved to Texas in 2021.
While California has a history of supporting Democratic candidates, Texas is a Republican stronghold. Musk endorsed Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump in July and is currently actively campaigning for the former president both online and offline.
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