California still outperforms Texas in at least one major way, Elon Musk says: recruiting.
SpaceX and Tesla Inc. have been hit hard by politics in recent years. After moving its headquarters to Texas, he said it’s still easy to recruit employees to work in California. with one exception.
“Austin, that helps,” Musk said — noting that Tesla still has most of its engineering capabilities in California. “Trying to move engineers … I’d say that’s another significant problem.”
That’s what makes engineering hiring at Starbase, the remote South Texas outpost where SpaceX is developing its Starship mega-rocket, the most difficult.
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“It was especially difficult for Starbase, because the chances of finding a non-SpaceX job are very low,” Musk said. “It’s very difficult. It’s like a technology monastery, distant and mostly friends.”
Spouses, he said, are often unwilling to move to separate areas.
Oyster companies also operate in Robstown McGregor, Bastrop and elsewhere throughout the state.
He revealed the issues on the Cheeky Pint podcast during a chat in which he accused tech giant Apple Inc of trying to steal Tesla’s talent while that company was working on its own self-driving electric car, a project that was later scrapped.
“They were carpet bombing Tesla with recruiting calls,” Musk said. He claimed that their opening offer would almost double compensation at Tesla, indicating what he referred to as the “Tesla Pixie Dust” factor, in which other companies believe that if they can hire someone from Tesla, the employee will put them on the track to success.
“When we had the pixie dust problem, we recruited relentlessly,” Musk said. “Also, with Tesla engineering, especially since it’s primarily in Silicon Valley, it’s easier for people … they don’t have to change their lives too much. Their commute will be the same.”
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Musk has long been trying to draw tech talent to Texas, with a new push following last week’s announcement that SpaceX had acquired xAI. Days after announcing the plans, Starlink Engineering Vice President Michael Nichols said the SpaceX-owned satellite company is hiring for key engineering roles at the company’s facilities in Austin and Seattle to develop technologies for AI satellites in space.
