What just happened? Elon Musk says he will move the headquarters of two of his companies, former Twitter platform X and SpaceX, from California to Texas in response to the former's new gender identity law, which the billionaire called the "last straw." Musk said the law and others like it attack both "families and companies."
In a post on X yesterday, Musk wrote that SpaceX will be moving its HQ from Hawthorne, California, to an existing facility in Boca Chica, Texas. The X HQ, meanwhile, will be moving from San Francisco to Austin.
California Governor Gavin Newsom signed a bill into law on Monday that forbids any school policies requiring parents to be notified if their child wishes to change pronouns/sexual identity or identifies as transgender. Several school districts in the state had already introduced the rules.
I did make it clear to Governor Newsom about a year ago that laws of this nature would force families and companies to leave California to protect their children
– Elon Musk (@elonmusk) July 16, 2024
"The state will take away your kids in California," Musk added in a follow-up X post.
Musk wrote that he'd told Governor Newsom about a year ago that laws of this nature would force families and companies to leave California to protect their children.
While Musk said the new law was the main reason why he was moving his companies' headquarters, the CEO also mentioned that, when it comes to X's current San Francisco HQ, he'd "had enough of dodging gangs of violent drug addicts just to get in and out of the building." Musk's announcement follows previous reports that he was considering moving X's headquarters before the bill was signed this week.
SpaceX and X employ thousands of people in California. Musk never mentioned how many positions would be transferred to Texas.
Newsom responded to Musk's decision with his own message on X: a screenshot of a 2022 Donald Trump post in which the former president mocked Musk, saying the billionaire would have dropped to his knees if Trump had asked. "You bent the knee," Newsom wrote.
You bent the knee. pic.twitter.com/5CNAWvZFSv
– Gavin Newsom (@GavinNewsom) July 16, 2024
In 2021, Musk himself moved from California to Texas, where there is no state income tax on individuals. He moved Tesla's headquarters from California to Texas that same year, but later confirmed that California would remain its engineering hub.
In February, Musk changed SpaceX's state of incorporation from Delaware to Texas after a judge in Delaware voided his $56 billion Tesla compensation package.
Elon Musk says he will move X and SpaceX headquarters to Texas in response to California gender law