MASA Nakamura

For those telling @elonmusk to just pack up and leave Texas, do you all understand how STUPID that sounds? Are you asking him to pack up his suitcase and throw it in his pickup truck and leave the state?? The new Texas Governor, Gina Hinojosa, either chooses economics or politics and Texas loses big time. We’re talking about industrial infrastructure on a scale most people can’t even picture: 1️⃣ Gigafactory Texas near Austin sits on ~2,500 acres with over 10 million square feet of factory floor. Tesla has already poured billions into it (recent reports put eligible property investment past $6 billion, with earlier estimates of total investment in the $10B+ range). It employs roughly 16,500 people and produces Model Y, Cybertruck, and ramping Cybercab production. This is Tesla’s global HQ and a major U.S. manufacturing hub. 2️⃣ The joint Tesla/SpaceX Terafab chip complex in Grimes County is planned as the largest chip manufacturing facility on the planet - over 100 million square feet when fully built. Initial phase investment is $16.8 billion, with total potential spend across phases ranging from $55 billion to $119 billion. It is designed to make, package, and test advanced logic and memory chips under one roof for Optimus, Cybercabs, and SpaceX needs, creating thousands of high-paying jobs. 3️⃣ Add in the Megapack factory near Houston, a proposed ~$10 billion solar cell plant in Fort Bend County (nearly 10,000 jobs if it lands), Starbase in South Texas (billions already invested, thousands of jobs, Starship production and launch infrastructure), and supporting suppliers. This is not a handful of offices. It is fixed capital, specialized cleanrooms, massive power and water infrastructure, trained workforces, and deep supply-chain ecosystems. Relocating this is not “pack up and go.” Semiconductor fabs and large auto/energy plants take years (often 5+) to build, qualify, and ramp. They require unique site conditions (power, water, vibration control, logistics), regulatory approvals, skilled labor that takes time to train or attract, and supplier clusters that do not magically follow. The equipment is custom, the processes are tuned to the facility, and the sunk costs are enormous. Walking away means writing off tens of billions, years of production capacity, and thousands of jobs while starting over somewhere else from scratch - exactly the opposite of how these businesses operate. Governor Hinojosa has a choice: treat these as economic engines that generate jobs, tax base, and industrial capacity, or play politics and risk driving capital and future investment elsewhere. Texas has benefited enormously from this scale of commitment. Pretending it can just be loaded into a truck and driven across a state line is pure fantasy.