Tesla (Nasdaq: TSLA) hosted a major celebration, in-person and online, to debut its new Gigafactory in Texas. The event was dubbed a "Cyber Rodeo" and thousands of high-profile guests were invited to the event which was the unveiling of Tesla's new facility in Travis County, Texas, just outside of Austin. It will also double as its new headquarters after the company relocated from California.
The entire facility is going to employ 10,000 workers, who will be building the Cybertruck, Semi, Model 3, and Model Y. It also adds to gigafactories that are located in Shanghai and Berlin.
The Texas gigafactory and company headquarters are located on the Colorado River. The total size of the new facility is 2,500 acres with 10 million square feet of factory space. It's also the culmination of Tesla and Musk's relocation to Texas following his criticisms of California regulators during the lockdowns in 2020 and the desirability of Texas due to its lack of state taxes and friendly business climate.
Overall, the event had 15,000 attendees, including hundreds who were loitering outside, with millions following it online. According to permits from the event, it included interactive tours, food, alcohol, and live entertainment. It also had pyrotechnics that heralded the arrival of Musk, who was outfitted in a black cowboy hat. His remarks were live-streamed on Youtube (NASDAQ: GOOGL).
Musk has said the plant, which would employ up to 10,000 workers, would build its Cybertruck, Semi, Model 3, and Model Y sport utility vehicles. Last month, he also opened another "Gigafactory" on the outskirts of Berlin to produce the Model Y SUV.
However, the biggest headlines were created not by the event itself but due to Musk's bold proclamations about what Tesla would be doing in the next few years. Musk is infamous for making big promises on unreasonable timeframes, however, he does have a track record of eventually delivering so it's not possible to dismiss him completely.
Some of his predictions included a futuristic, self-driving, robotaxi that would be coming out in the next few years. He also said that full self-driving would be rolled out to all North American vehicles sometime this year. He also said that it will be starting production of its humanoid robot and Cybertruck later this year as well.