Caterpillar to move headquarters to Texas from Illinois in fresh blow to the Chicago area

Even with the move, Illinois has the largest concentration of Caterpillar CAT, -0.14% employees anywhere in the world, the company said. The headquarters was historically in downstate Peoria, Ill., before a move to the Chicago suburb of Deerfield in 2017.

Boeing BA, +5.46% in May said it was moving its global headquarters to Arlington, Va., outside Washington, D.C., promising to keep a “significant presence” in downtown Chicago, where it moved in 2001 from Seattle.

Caterpillar said it would begin the relocation this year, without proving further details.

Texas welcomed Tesla Inc.’s TSLA, +2.39% headquarters last year, with Chief Executive Elon Musk blaming the San Francisco Bay Area’s lack of affordable housing for the move. Tesla was headquartered in Palo Alto, in the heart of Silicon Valley.

Musk said in 2020 that he had moved to Texas, saying that Silicon Valley has had “too much influence in the world.”

Shares of Caterpillar were down 0.4% in midday trading Tuesday. The stock has lost about 0.3% so far this year, contrasting with losses of more than 21% for the S&P 500 SPX, -0.37%.