SpaceX CEO and X owner Elon Musk said Tuesday that he will move the headquarters of both companies from California to Texas.
Musk had vowed to make the moves in response to Gov. Gavin Newsom’s (Calif.) signing of a new law that prohibits school districts in that state from requiring parents to be informed of a child’s gender change. Newson signed the Transgender Students Act into law on Monday.
“This is the final straw. Because of this law and the many others that have come before it that attack both families and companies, SpaceX will now move its headquarters from Hawthorne, California to Starbase, Texas,” wrote Musk at X. He later added that X HQ will also move from San Francisco to Austin.
“I made it clear to Governor Newsom about a year ago that laws like this would force families and corporations out of California to protect their children,” he added.
In 2022, People magazine reported Elon MuskHis then 18-year-old daughter was given permission to legally change her name and gender to Vivian Jenna Wilson. She dropped the Musk family name and took her mother’s maiden name, Justine Wilson.
When asked about his estranged transgender daughter in October 2022, Musk said Financial Times “I can’t win them all,” and he claimed he was on good terms with all his other children.
Musk also told the Financial Times that his daughter’s decision was prompted by “neo-Marxists” in educational institutions.
Musk recently endorsed former President Donald Trump and reportedly plans to contribute $45 million a month to a pro-Trump Super PAC called America PAC.
Trump is expected to roll back transgender rights if elected president again this year.
The 19th news said, citing a February 2023 Trump campaign video, that his proposals “would end Medicare and Medicaid funding for hospitals that provide gender-affirming care to transgender youth, attempt to charge teachers with gender discrimination for affirming students’ gender identity and will order federal agencies to stop all programs that promote the concept of gender and gender transition at any age.”
The American Academy of Pediatrics and other major medical organizations, including the American Medical Association, the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists, and the World Health Organization, all “support giving transgender teens access to the health care they need.”
On Tuesday, Newsom responded to Musk in a post on X (formerly Twitter) saying, “You bent the knee,” and included a screenshot of a 2022 post on Truth Social where Trump had reprimanded Musk.
In the 2022 post, Trump had written: “When Elon Musk came to the White House asking me for help with all of his many subsidized projects, whether it’s electric cars that don’t drive enough, or driverless cars that crash, or missiles to nowhere, without the subsidies he would be worthless, and telling me how he was a big Trump fan and a Republican, I could have said, ‘get on your knees and beg,’ and he would.”
In 2021 Musk, who is also its CEO Teslamoved its automotive company’s corporate headquarters from Palo Alto, California to Austin.
SpaceX did not immediately respond to requests for further information, including whether the company would potentially close its Hawthorne operations.
When Tesla moved its headquarters to Texas, it kept its Palo Alto office as “engineering headquarters.” Tesla even expanded to this location and held a press event there with Newsom in February 2023.