These companies have shifted their headquarters out of California

Numerous companies have left California in recent years to escape rising costs, extensive regulations and high taxes.

Even the company that tracks companies leaving California, CBRE, has left California, per The Free Press.

While California is the US’s most populous state and has the largest economy, firms have left for places such as Florida and Texas, which have no state income tax.

Progressive politics, including governance on climate and business regulations, have often been blamed for the business exodus.

California has the most business regulatory restrictions of any state, the Free Press reported. The regulations are on top of high costs and taxes that consumers and businesses already endure.

Here are some of the notable players who have already left the Golden State.

Chevron

Chevron announced it would move its headquarters from San Ramon, California to Houston, Texas in August 2024.

The move ended Chevron’s 145-year residence in California, though the company didn’t initially explain why it moved.

CEO Mike Wirth said the move was not made because of politics, but “really to be closer to the core epicenter of our industry.”

“We’ve had some policy differences with California,” Wirth told Bloomberg. “But this isn’t a move about politics. It’s a move about what’s good for our company to compete and perform.”

He touted Houston as the “energy capital of the world.”

“It’s a natural place for companies in our industry to have their home office and headquarters,” Wirth added.

Tesla, SpaceX and X

The chief executive or founder of all three companies, Elon Musk, blamed politics for his departure from the Golden State.

He ultimately decided to move X and SpaceX out of California due to a transgender law banning schools from making rules if a child identifies as transgender.

“This is the final straw. Because of this law and the many others that preceded it, attacking both families and companies, SpaceX will now move its HQ from Hawthorne, California, to Starbase, Texas,” he wrote on X in July 2024.

Musk previously blamed housing prices for moving Tesla out of the Bay Area.

“There’s a limit to how big you can scale in the Bay Area,” he said in 2021.

Musk moved all three companies to Texas.

Charles Schwab

Like other companies, Charles Schwab chose to ditch California in late-2019 due to the high costs in the state.

Founder and chairman Charles Schwab said high taxes also played into the decision. California has some of the highest business taxes in the nation.

“The costs of doing business here are so much higher than some other place,” he told Forbes.

Schwab moved from San Francisco to Westlake, Texas, erecting a campus that covers 500,000 square feet and cost $100 million.

Oracle

Oracle has moved multiple times in recent years, but left California in 2020 for Texas.

The company said at the time that it was moving to allow employees to “choose their office location as well as continue to work from home part time or all of the time.”

CEO Larry Ellison himself moved out of California to Hawaii in 2020. He shifted more assets out of the state recently ahead of a proposed billionaire tax. Oracle has also started a bloodbath of layoffs this year amid a push to finance AI infrastructure projects.

Oracle has since moved from Texas to Nashville, Tennessee.

Public Storage

Public Storage, founded in 1972 in El Cajon near San Diego, announced in February that it is moving its corporate headquarters from Glendale to Frisco in suburban Dallas, Texas.

Company CEO H. Thomas Boyle suggested the talent pool in the Lone Star State is better, as Public Storage has been able to fill more corporate positions at its Texas location.

“It’s about finding the right talent across the country and building the team going forward, and we look forward to strong leadership in both offices,” Boyle said.

California legislation also might’ve driven out the company. A new senate bill, effective for agreements beginning at the start of 2026, regulates California’s self-storage industry by requiring disclosures of rent hikes in rental agreements. It was initially proposed to place price caps on the state’s self-storage industry.

Companies that have left California also include:

• Hewlett Packard Enterprise
• CBRE
• McKesson
• Blaze Pizza
• John Paul Mitchell Systems
• D-Wave Quantum Inc
• Palantir
• Yamaha
• Neutrogena

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