Elon Musk To Relocate SpaceX, X HQ To Texas

Elon Musk’s fractious relationship with California has taken a fresh twist this week, with his decision to relocate two of his most high-profile companies away from that US state.

In a tweet on Tuesday, Elon Musk said he will move the headquarters of both SpaceX and X (formerly Twitter), out of California to Texas.

Musk cited his opposition to a new Californian state law which bans schools from requiring staff to disclose information about a child’s gender identity – including to parents. “This is the last straw,” Musk tweeted.

Texas relocation

Essentially, Musk’s has decided to move SpaceX headquarters from Hawthorne, California, to the company’s rocket launch site (dubbed Starbase) in Texas.

Meanwhile the famous headquarters of X in San Francisco will relocated to Austin, Texas, in a another business relocation blow for that city.

And 𝕏 HQ will move to Austin https://t.co/LUDfLEsztj

— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) July 16, 2024

There is no word on what impact this will have on the employees of both firms.

SpaceX for example employs more than 5,000 people in California, and now all eyes will be on Musk’s remaining Californian location – the Tesla gigafactory in Fremont, California.

California law

The legislation that has triggered the relocation move by Musk was signed into law on Monday by California Governor Gavin Newsom. It bans school districts from requiring staff to notify parents of their child’s gender identification change, and the legislation has been opposed by Elon Musk.

The issue of what schools should tell parents about their children’s gender identities has become a hot topic in the US, with LGBTQ advocates arguing that students have a right to privacy.

However others insist parents have a right to know what is happening with their children.

Musk said he had previously warned Governor Newsom that this law would force both companies and parents to leave California.

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. https://t.co/cpWUDgBWFe

— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) July 16, 2024

Musk added that his decision to relocate X from San Francisco was also because he “had enough of dodging gangs of violent drug addicts just to get in and out of the building.”

Musk’s decision to relocate from California comes amid his ongoing move to the right in American politics.

At the weekend, he formally endorsed Donald Trump for president following the assassination attempt on him, and it has been reported in the media that he will funnelling $45m a month toward his campaign, which Musk has indicated is fake news with a meme.

Musk and California

Musk already has a very poor view of California, after he had lived in Los Angeles for 20 years.

In December 2020 Musk announced he had personally left California and had relocated to Texas.

In December 2021 Musk said on a podcast that California was “doing everything it can to encourage people to leave,” and he joked that u-haul was doing great business in the US state.

He also slammed California for ‘overtaxation’ and ‘overegulation’ and ‘overlitigation’.

In 2020 Musk had threatened to move both the Tesla factory and its headquarters out of California altogether, to Texas or Nevada, after he famously clashed with officials in Alameda County over the re-opening of Tesla’s factory during the first Californian Covid-19 lockdown.

His threat to pull the factory of the world’s most valuable carmaker out of California was not realised, after Musk was allowed to re-open the Fremont factory early.

But in October 2021, Elon Musk followed through on his warning, and moved Tesla’s corporate headquarters to Texas.

Musk has also recently won a shareholder vote to incorporate Tesla in Texas, after a judge in Delaware ruled against his $56 billion pay deal that had been agreed back in 2018.