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Fireworks on Canterbury Street, July 4, 2020.
On the surface, Elon Musk and Spencer Cronk don’t really have much in common besides being rich white men with deep ties to Austin. (Actually, that is a lot in common.) Cronk arrived first, in 2018, when he left his role as Minneapolis’ city manager to take over the same post in Austin. Musk arrived two years later when Tesla announced in July 2020 that it would be opening its gigafactory in far East Austin. Then, in December 2021, Tesla announced it had officially moved its headquarters — including its engineering team — to the Capital City.
Over the past 10 days, both men have left the city, one by choice, one by force, and it appears that very few locals are sad to see either man go. On Wednesday, Musk appeared alongside California Gov. Gavin Newsom (D) — a frequent target of Musk’s criticisms — to announce that the automaker was bringing its engineering HQ back to Silicon Valley.
Two dudes with microphones, California, February 2023.
Giga-what?
Tesla headquartering its engineers in California doesn’t mean that the company’s presence in the Lone Star State is ending. In addition to the Gigafactory in Austin, Tesla’s Space X is based in Boca Chica, which moved to South Texas in 2014. But the company’s engineers — along with the auxiliary staff and the high-paying salaries they command — will not be here. It’s hard to imagine that their boss, who also owns California-based Twitter, isn’t going to be spending more time on the West Coast.
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