thebigp

December 17, 2020
| AAN Staff | Government | 24
A growing number of companies headquartered in California have fled to Texas, entranced by favorable operating costs, lower taxes, and employment opportunities. The development comes as a massive blow to the Golden State and represents a larger trend of lower tax red states luring companies away from higher tax blue states. With the unprecedented shift to remote work, uprooting operations is easier than ever. Here are the largest corporations saying adios to California.
Oracle
One of Silicon Valley’s oldest companies has had enough. While its 135,000 employees retain the option to work from home, at its former world headquarters, and other U.S. offices, Oracle announced days ago its headquarters officially moved to Austin, Texas over California’s tax rates, cost of living, and arduous commutes.
The world’s second-largest software maker first opened a campus in Austin two years ago, designed to attract a younger and less expensive workforce. Oracle co-founder Larry Ellison and CEO Safra Catz are longtime supporters of President Donald Trump. They’re also sharp critics of the new Silicon Valley and, in particular, tech giant Google.
SpaceX and Tesla
In the first week of December, SpaceX and Telsa CEO Elon Musk confirmed his move to Texas, accompanying his business empire’s t***sition to the Lone Star State. Six weeks after Gov. Gavin Newsom’s executive order shuttered Tesla’s Fremont Factory, the electric vehicle and clean energy company filed a lawsuit against California’s Alameda County. The last straw for Musk came after dealing with the county’s unelected interim public health officer, whose harsh criteria for businesses struggling to survive the p******c took precedent over Newsom’s already strict rules. With SpaceX facilities operating in South Texas and a new Telsa factory under construction outside of Austin, how much of Musk’s production remains in California depends on treatment by state officials.
Hewlett Packard Enterprise
The company whose roots stretch back to the origins of Silicon Valley announced its plan to depart California after a century in San Jose shortly before Musk’s latest statement. Hewlett Packard Enterprise’s relocation to Houston is among the latest evidence that the Texas Triangle may usurp Northern California as America’s innovation hub.
McKesson Corp.
McKesson Corp. is one of roughly 100 companies that have relocated their national or international headquarters to the Dallas-Forth Worth metroplex since 2012. As the nation’s largest pharmaceutical distributor, the company is the federal government’s centralized logistics coordinator for distributing the c****av***s v*****e and ancillary supplies under Operation Warp Speed.

Core-Mark
Core-Mark, a Fortune 500 wholesale supply chain service company for convenience stores and other retailers that carry convenience products across the United States, is arguably the biggest jobs win for the DFW metroplex in the past decade. In 2019, the company moved to Westlake, Texas — after 130 years in San Francisco.
Aatonomy
Drone company Aatonomy left California last year for Houston. Co-founder Wilson Pulling cited Houston’s low cost of living despite its status as the United State’s fourth-largest city as one of the main draws. Further commenting on Houston’s appeal, Pulling added that it’s “a place of industry, resolve, and action. BS doesn’t fly in Houston. And there’s a lot of BS in Silicon Valley.”
Bonus: Apple
Nicolas Henderson via Flickr
While its headquarters haven’t left Silicon Valley, Apple has doubled its Austin area workforce with 5,000 new jobs last year and potentially 10,000 more coming soon. The proliferation of jobs will make the multinational technology company Austin’s largest private employer and further adds to California’s talent diaspora.